HISTORY 



OF 



CARBON COUNTY 

PENNSYLVANIA 



Also Containing a Separate Account of the Several 
Boroughs and Townships in the County 



With Biographical Sketches 

BY 

FRED BRENCKMAN 




HARRISBURG, PA. : 

JAMES J. NUNGESSER, PUBLISHER 

1913 






-^2, 



y- 



TO MY MOTHER 

AND TO ALL MY FRIENDS IN 

CARBON COUNTY 

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK 



Lehigh, I dream that in thy voice 

I catch a tone of gladness, 
That yearning love is in thy touch, 

That thou wouldst soothe my sadness. 
— Augusta Moore. 



PREFACE. 

It is to be regretted that Carbon county, rich in his- 
torical materials, has no historical society. 

Intimate contact with representative citizens in all 
parts of the county has convinced me that such an in- 
stitution would not only be welcomed but gladly sup- 
ported by them. 

There does not appear to be any good reason why 
the organization and establishment of a society of this 
nature should be further delayed, and it would afford 
me great pleasure to do everything within my power 
to assist in the consummation of this object. 

Had there been an institution of this description 
in the county, the time, labor and expense devoted to 
the preparation of the present work might have been 
greatly lessened, while the result might have been 
more satisfactory to me and the public alike. 

Every effort, however, has been made to gain all 
the light possible on the subjects treated in the fol- 
lowing pages, and no pains have been spared to verify 
and authenticate all that has been here recorded. 

Much of the matter bearing on the early history of 
this general region has been drawn from among the 
mass of books, pamphlets and papers contained in the 
library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. The 
public libraries of the Lehigh, Wyoming and Lacka- 
wanna Valleys have also been laid under contribution, 
as have the files of the newspapers of this and adjoin- 
ing counties, the court records at Mauch Chunk and at 
Easton, and the various bureaus and departments of 
the state government. But equally important with the 
information derived from these sources is that which I 



PREFACE. 

gleaned directly from the people in every section of the 
county. 

In view of this fact, I desire hereby publicly to 
heartily thank all those who in any manner assisted me 
in this undertaking. 

Fred Brenckman. 

HuDsoNDALE, Pa., October 5, 1912. 



CONTENTS. 

I. The Indians Supplanted By The Whites ... 1 

II. Moravians Settle Carbon County 25 

III. Gnadenhutten Destroyed In Indian Uprising 34 

IV. Belated Measures For Defense Of Frontier 47 
V. Captivity Of The Gilbert Family 62 

VI. Early Annals Of Antpiracite Coal 73 

VII. Organization Of The County 87 

VIII. Military Affairs 95 

IX. Education 109 

- - X. The Mollie Maguires 127 

XI. Strikes And Labor Difficulties 147 

XII. Steam And Electric Railroads 157 

XIII, Banks Township, Beaver Meadow Borough, 

East Mauch Chunk Borough, And East 
Penn Township 167 

XIV. East Side Borough, Franklin Township, 

Kidder Township, Lansford Borough, And 

Lausanne Township 196 

XV. Lehigh Township, Lehighton Borough, And 

Lower Towamensing Township 226 

XVI. Mahoning Township, And Mauch Chunk 

Borough 255 

XVII. Mauch Chunk Township, Packer Township, 
Palmerton Borough, Parryville Borough, 
Penn Forest Township, And Summit Hill 

Borough 289 

XVIII. Towamensing Township, Weatherly Bor- 
ough, And Weissport Borough 335 

Biographical Sketches 363 

Appendixes 621 



IX 



CHAPTER I. 

THE INDIANS SUPPLANTED BY THE WHITES. 

Penn-syl-va-ni-a — what a majestic, awe-inspiring 
sound the name has ! and how it taxes the imagination, 
amid the changed conditions of to-day, to enable us to 
realize that less than three centuries have elapsed since 
the white man held any possessions among the dusky 
denizens of the woods within the present confines of 
this grand commonwealth. 

According to their own traditions, the various In- 
dian tribes inhabiting this portion of the country at 
the time of the coming of the Europeans lived, many 
centuries ago, towards the setting sun — somewhere in 
the west of this continent. The Lenni Lenape, mean- 
ing the original people, and considering themselves 
an unmixed and unchanging race, determined to mi- 
grate towards the rising of the sun. After journeying 
across wide and trackless plains they arrived at the 
Namasi Sipa (Mississippi) river. Here they met the 
Mengwe, or Iroquois, also in quest of a new home to 
the eastward. 

Anticipating opposition from the Alligewi, a people 
of gigantic form, living on the east side of the Missis- 
sippi, they here united their forces. Not many days 
after their union, and before they advanced, many 
and mighty battles were fought. At last the Alligewi 
were overpowered, and to escape extermination they 
abandoned the country of their fathers to the people 
of ''The New Union," fled far to the southward, and 
never returned. 

In dividing the conquered territory, the Iroquois 
chose the lands in the vicinity of the Great Lakes and 

1 



4 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

westward, the Warriors' Path continuing in a direct 
line northward to the village of the Nanticokes, not far 
from the site of Wilkes-Barre. 

The shores of the Delaware were first visited by 
European mariners in 1609. During the summer of 
that year, Henry Hudson, the English explorer, having 
twice previously failed, made a third attempt to find a 
northwest passage to India and China. His former 
ventures had been financed by English capitalists ; but 
he was now in the service of the Dutch. 

He sailed in a little craft called the Half Moon, a 
ship of eighty tons burden. On the 28th of August, 
four months and a half after leaving Holland, he en- 
tered the Delaware Bay. Soon convinced by the shal- 
lowness of the water that he had not found the much 
sought for pathway, he returned, passed the capes, 
and turned the prow of his vessel northward. 

The generation which followed Hudson's discovery 
of the bay witnessed the formation of various com- 
panies for the purpose of colonizing the country adja- 
cent to its shores and trading with the inhabitants 
thereof. 

For a long period little worthy of note was accom- 
plished, however. Though chartered to trade with the 
Indians and to colonize the new world, it seems that 
the real object of the leaders of some of these enter- 
prises was a colossal system of piracy on the ships of 
Spain and Portugal. Actively engaged in commerce, 
these nations were very successful in robbing the na- 
tives of Mexico and Peru of their silver treasures. 
Others, just as greedy, adopted a similar plan of en- 
riching themselves by relieving the original robbers of 
their ill-gotten plunder. 

The first colony on the shores of the Delaware was 
established by the Dutch in 1623, when they built Fort 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 5 

Nassau, a few miles below Philadelphia. The colon- 
ists grew homesick, and within a year abandoned the 
fort, going to Manhattan. Thus the first attempt at 
colonization on the Delaware came to a speedy end. 
Half a dozen years passed before another attempt was 
made to locate a colony on its shores. A settlement 
that was planted by Captain David Pietersen De Vries 
in 1631, was soon thereafter destroyed by the Indians. 
De Vries had returned to Holland, leaving a subor- 
dinate in command. Prior to his departure, a pillar, to 
which was nailed a piece of tin, whereon was traced 
the Dutch coat or arms, had been erected. A dusky 
chief, not knowing the wickedness of taking it away, 
converted it into tobacco pipes. This angered the 
Dutch; and the Indians, not knowing how else to ap- 
pease their wrath, killed the offending chief, and re- 
turned the unusued portion of the tin. The friends of 
the murdered chief resolved to be revenged. They 
attacked the Dutch when they were at work in the 
fields, totally annihilating them. 

Before leaving Europe on his second voyage De 
Vries learned of the destruction of the colony. Reach- 
ing the Delaware early in the winter, he beheld the 
bones of his murdered men among the ruins of the 
settlement. He wisely refrained from seeking re- 
venge; with smiles and presents he succeeded in re- 
gaining the friendship of the Indians, with whom 
peace was maintained for many years. 

The government of Sweden, in 1638, established per- 
manent settlements along the Delaware. Colonel John 
Printz was appointed governor of New Sweden in 
1642. One of Printz 's first acts after his arrival on the 
Delaware was to select a site for a residence. The 
place chosen was not far from Chester, on the Island 
of Tinicum. Here he built a spacious mansion, which 



5 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

came to be known as Printz 's Hall. The Swedish gov- 
ernor was a man of prodigious girth, weighing over 
four hundred pounds, it is said. He bore the reputa- 
tion of a hard drinker, and was a man of aggressive 
temperament. The fort which he erected was below 
the Dutch settlement and controlled the river, causing 
great annoyance to Dutch vessels, because in passing 
they were ordered to lower their colors. 

The Swedes joined with the Dutch in their methods 
of peace and friendship toward the Indians, and their 
honesty and kindness were reciprocated by the aborig- 
ines. 

The Swedes on the Delaware were subdued by the 
Dutch in 1655, and brought under the jurisdiction of 
Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherlands, who, 
in his turn, was conquered by the English not long 
afterwards. 

With the falling of the power of the Dutch, English 
title to the continent was complete from Canada to 
Florida. 

England at this time was in the midst of that seeth- 
ing religious excitement which characterized the middle 
decades of the seventeenth century. Among the in- 
finite varieties of sects which sprang into being during 
this period were the Friends, derisively called Quakers. 
Led by the indomitable George Fox, the Friends re- 
fused to conform to the established church of the 
realm. They would not pay tithes to support a religion 
which their consciences could not approve. They 
steadfastly refused to take off their hats before magis- 
trate, judge, priest, or king. Neither would they obey 
any law interfering with the liberty of their worship. 
Certain peculiarities of speech and dress aided to make 
the members of this sect odious to the dominant forces 
in England. Next to George Fox, the most conspicu- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 7 

ous and influential person in shaping the character and 
future of the Society of Friends was the venerated 
founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn. 

Penn was born in London, England, October 14, 
1644, and was a son of Vice Admiral Sir William Penn, 
of the British Navy. Admiral Penn owned valuable 
estates in Ireland, and was prominent and influential 
throughout the United Kingdom. In 1656 he moved 
his family to his Irish estates, and William pursued 
his studies at home under a private tutor. 

When he became fifteen years of age, he went to 
Oxford, and entered upon a course of study at Christ 
Church College. It was at this period that he first 
came under the influence of the preachers of the so- 
ciety with which his name was later so prominently 
identified. He was deeply impressed with the sim- 
plicity and purity of the Friends' form of worship, 
and he soon came to feel that the established church 
was too subservient to dogma and the lifeless cere- 
monies of creed. 

Taking part in the religious services of the Friends, 
and withdrawing from the established church, he in- 
curred the disapproval and censure of the faculty, ul- 
timately being expelled from college on this account. 

His father, an ambitious, worldly man, was much in- 
censed at William's *' misconduct, " and remonstrated 
in strong terms; but, finding that his' son was firmly 
intrenched in his religious "fanaticism," he expelled 
him from home. Later, the father, who warmly loved 
his son, relented and sent William to France, in com- 
pany with some friends of rank and prominence, hop- 
ing thereby to divert the boy's mind into other chan- 
nels of thought. But his sojourn in France, while 
giving him the politeness and polish of French society, 
did not wholly eradicate the serious demeanor which 



8 HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 

had so greatly displeased his father. In 1666, William 
was furnished with a letter of introduction to Sir 
George Lane, then secretary of the lord-lieutenant of 
Ireland. Here he was received with marked attention 
and became a welcome guest at a court of almost regal 
splendor. 

During his residence in Ireland, a mutiny arose 
among the soldiers of the garrison of Carrickfergus, 
and William evinced so much coolheaded bravery and 
good judgment in assisting to quell the mutineers that 
the duke tendered him a position as captain of in- 
fantry. It appears that at first Penn was highly flat- 
tered by this proposal, and seemed disposed to accept ; 
but after mature consideration, he rejected the offer. 

Being in the city of Cork soon thereafter, he attended 
a meeting of Friends, which was conducted by his old 
pastor, Thomas Loe, formerly of Oxford. Penn was 
greatly stirred by the discourse, and firmly resolved 
from that hour to renounce worldly glories and honors, 
and to devote himself to the service of God and his fel- 
low-men. But he was soon called to share in the 
physical sufferings of his friends, being arrested and 
cast into prison at Cork. While languishing in jail 
he wrote his first public utterance on the subject of 
liberty of conscience. Being liberated from prison 
after a time, he returned to England on the request of 
his father, and was again subjected to the indignity 
of being expelled from beneath the paternal roof. 
From this decision the elder Penn relented only on his 
death-bed. 

In 1668 Penn felt himself called to the gospel min- 
istry, in which he became distinguished, both as a 
preacher and a writer of religious works. Some of his 
utterances gave great offense to the clergy of the 
Church of England, particularly to the Bishop of 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 9 

London. This functionary succeeded in securing 
Penn's imprisonment in the Tower. During his in- 
carceration, which continued nearly nine months, he 
wrote, ''No Cross, No Crown," one of the imperish- 
able works of prison literature, together with other 
productions which have been read in many languages. 

Penn was thrice arrested and twice imprisoned 
after his liberation from the Tower, but remained 
steadfast to the principles of universal toleration, 
writing and speaking in defense of the cause which he 
advocated with an earnestness and zeal which had be- 
become characteristic of the man. 

Penn's affections were now stirred by a young lady 
named Gulielma Springett. She was herself a Friend, 
and smiled graciously on her lover. They were mar- 
ried in the spring of 1672, when Penn was twenty-eight 
years of age. 

"Those who knew him only at second hand," says 
one of his biographers, "imagined that the prisoner 
of Newgate and the Tower would now subside into the 
country gentleman, more interested in cultivating his 
paternal acres than in the progress of an unpopular 
doctrine. Those who reasoned so knew little of Wil- 
liam Penn, and still less of the lady who had become 
his wife." 

After devoting a few months to his new life, Penn 
resumed his work of writing and preaching. As the 
persecutions of the Friends did not cease, he was 
always busy interceding for them and trying to secure 
for them larger liberties. At best, however, their con- 
dition was miserable. 

On the death of his father, Penn came into posses- 
sion of an ample estate. Among his other inheritances 
was a claim of sixteen thousand pounds against the 
kingj his father having loaned this sum to the impe- 



10 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

cunious monarch. Gradually the idea of accepting a 
province in America in settlement of this debt formed 
itself in Penn's mind. There he might found an 
asylum for the oppressed of his own sect and of all 
nations. For a long time he had waited and nothing 
had been paid. As he pondered over the idea, it grew 
into clearer and larger form. The experiment, if suc- 
cessful, would be an enduring witness to the breadth 
and persistence of the Quaker faith. Some politicians, 
wiser than their generation, regarded the enterprise 
as dangerous to the crown and the state. In less than 
a hundred years, this utterance of mingled fear and 
prophecy was fulfilled. As the exchequer was nearly 
empty, Penn's request was finally granted; and the 
terms of the charter were settled and signed by Charles 

11 on the 4th of March, 1681. 

The eastern boundary of Penn's province was the 
Delaware river, beginning twelve miles north of New- 
castle and extending northward to the forty-third 
degree of latitude. It extended westward five degrees. 
The southern boundary was a circle beginning twelve 
miles north of Newcastle, and continuing at that dis- 
tance from Newcastle to the beginning of the fortieth 
degree of north latitude, and thence by a straight line 
westward to the limits of longitude already mentioned. 

By a provision of the royal charter, Penn was to pay 
to the king, his "heirs and successors, two beaver skins, 
to be delivered to our castle of Windsor on the 1st 
day of January in every year. ' ' And this tribute was 
paid by the Penns until 1780. It was also stipulated 
that a fifth part of all the gold and silver ore found in 
the province should belong to the crown. 

Penn first proposed to call the province New Wales, 
and afterward Sylvania, because so much of the land 
was covered with forest. Charles prefixed the word 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. H 

Penn as a compliment to Penn's father. Fearful that 
the name might be regarded as a piece of vanity, Penn 
appealed to the king, and offered twenty guineas to 
the secretary to change it. But Charles insisted and the 
patent was issued in the form which he prescribed. Four 
weeks after the king had signed the patent, Penn sent 
his cousin, Colonel William Markham, to take posses- 
sion of the country, to call a council of nine to assist 
him in administering the government, to inform the 
people of his purchase, to settle the boundary between 
his province and Maryland, to establish courts and to 
preserve peace. 

Besides the king's declaration, announcing the grant 
to Penn and requiring all persons settled in the prov- 
ince to yield obedience to him as proprietor and gov- 
ernor, Markham carried a letter from Penn himself, 
addressed to the people, assuring them of his sincere 
desire to deal fairly and honestly by them. "I hope 
you will not be troubled at your change, and the king's 
choice," said he; "for you are now fixed at the mercy 
of no governor who comes to make his fortune great. 
You shall be governed by laws of your own making, 
and live a free, and if you will, a sober and industrious 
people." 

In the autumn three vessels with colonists and three 
commissioners sailed from England. One of the ves- 
sels was driven by storms to the West Indies, and did 
not reach the Delaware until the following spring. 
Penn's instructions to his commissioners related chiefly 
to selecting a place for a '^ great town," surveying the 
land, and regulating intercourse with the Indians. He 
was particularly concerned that it should be a "green 
country town, which will never be burnt and always 
wholesome. ' ' 



X2 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Meanwhile Penn was deep in work on his frame of 
government, which was completed and published early 
in the spring of 1682. This constitution, as it may be 
termed, was modeled along broad and liberal lines, and 
was far in advance of any similar document that the 
world had yet seen. 

As soon as it was known that Penn had become the 
owner and governor of an American province, persons 
in nearly every large town in Great Britain and in 
many cities of the Rhine and of Holland, desired to 
purchase land. 

A German company was organized at Frankfort, 
and Pastorius purchased fifteen thousand acres in a 
single tract, and three thousand more within the Lib- 
erties of the future city. 

Many purchasers came from Liverpool and still 
more from London. Having forwarded his frame of 
government to Markham, Penn prepared to follow the 
first constitutional seedling planted on the banks of 
the Delaware. 

August came before the Welcome, a stately bark of 
three hundred tons, was fitted out to transport him 
and a hundred fellow passengers to America. The 
voyage was begun on the first of September. Soon 
after starting, that dread disease small-pox appeared. 
At first, the disease was mild, but before the vessel 
reached mid-ocean nearly every person on board was 
sick, while many died. Late in October, the voyagers 
rejoiced to see the low, woody banks of the Delaware, 
and nine weeks after quitting the shores of England, 
the Welcome anchored at the port of New Castle. As 
the ship proceeded up the river, the perfume of the air 
was like an orchard in full bloom. It was Indian 
summer, and the trees and shrubs were clothed in gor- 
geous* colors, while many of the birds were arrayed in 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 13 

bright plumage. All nature appeared to be wearing 
its richest dress on the coming of the new evangel of 
peace and liberty. 

From Newcastle, Penn proceeded to Upland, where 
Chester now is. Ere long he reached the mouth of 
Schuylkill, and four miles above this point the prow 
of the Welcome was turned up Dock creek, which was 
deep enough to enter, besides having a low, sandy 
beach, where a landing could easily be effected. Here 
Penn went ashore. He was on the site selected by 
his commissioners for the provincial capital. He was 
everywhere received with demonstrations of joy. Penn 
met the people as though they were his children, his 
mild and shining face reflecting the serenity of his 
spirit and goodness of his heart. 

Markham and the commissioners had bought land 
of the Indians before Penn's arrival and the process 
of settlement was already going on. Plans were now 
perfected for the building of the proposed city. Its 
name, form, streets, docks and open spaces were put 
on paper, very much as the famous ancient cities of 
the east were planned by their royal builders. Accord- 
ing to the provisions of this design, Philadelphia was 
to cover, with its houses, squares and gardens, twelve 
square miles. 

Having now fairly started his enterprise, Penn 
turned his thoughts to the Indians. Putting aside all 
ceremony, he won their hearts by his confiding and 
familiar speech. He walked with them in the forests* 
and sat with them on the ground to watch their young 
men dance. He joined in their feasts, and ate their 
roasted acorns and hominy. They called him the Great 
Onas, and were delighted with his companionship. 

If tradition be true, his most famous meeting with 
the Indians was at Shackamaxon, or the place of eels. 



14 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

This was a natural amphitheatre shaded by a large 
elm tree, under the graceful branches of which friendly 
nations had met and smoked the pipe of peace long be- 
fore the landing of the palefaces on the Delaware. 
Dense masses of cedar, pine and chestnut spread far 
away on every side, cut by the noble river, whose 
crystal waters ran slowly to the sea. 

The treaty which was there made was not fortified 
by oaths and seals. On both sides it was ratified with 
yea ; and unlike most treaties, this was kejDt. 

The same year that Penn arrived, twenty-three ves- 
sels brought from two thousand to three thousand 
emigrants of various faiths and nationalities into the 
province, most of them landing at Chester and at 
Philadelphia. Some of these came in advance of Penn. 
While building their homes, they dwelt in caves and 
rude huts, suffering but little from hardship and dis- 
ease. 

Even at that early day, the population of Pennsyl- 
vania was cosmopolitan in character. The lure which 
accounted for this varied national representation in 
the beginning of her history was the wealth of liberty 
and freedom that was extended to all comers. At a 
later date, the added attraction of the wealth of her 
forests, fields and mines induced men from every clime 
to build their homes within her boundaries. Naturally, 
from the first day of his landing, Penn found plenty to 
do. Much of his attention was given to the new city 
rapidly building on the banks of the Delaware. He 
visited New York and its governor, as a mark of re- 
spect to his friend, the Duke of York, also going to 
Baltimore in a vain attempt to adjust a dispute con- 
cerning the boundary line between Pennsylvania and 
Maryland. He preached in semi-weekly meetings of 
the Quakers, and served his term as a member of com- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 15 

mittees in their work of organization. Numerous in- 
dividual claims respecting land and settlers were 
brought to him for disposition. In addition to the 
three counties in the lower peninsula (now Delaware), 
he laid out three more in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 
Chester and Bucks. All of these stretched almost in- 
definitely westward. 

On December 6, he was ready for a meeting of the 
assembly, when representatives from these six counties 
were collected to perfect the government. In a brief 
session of three days, held at Upland, several impor- 
tant laws were passed, one of which was an act to 
naturalize the Dutch, Swedes, and other foreigners. 

Penn's wife being ill, and other considerations de- 
manding his presence in Europe, he sailed from the 
province, August 16, 1684, feeling that his ''Holy Ex- 
periment" was now successfully launched. In bidding 
the red men farewell, he begged them to drink no more 
fire water, forbade his own people to sell them brandy 
and arms, and obtained their promise to live in peace 
and amity with each other and with the white men. 
At this time about seven thousand settlers were living 
in the province. Of this number, one-third were in 
Philadelphia. 

The government during his absence was carried on 
by five commissioners, chosen from the provincial 
council. 

Upon returning to England, Penn labored unceas- 
ingly in the cause of freedom and religious toleration. 
Many persons who had been imprisoned for their 
opinions were released through his intercession. He 
had always intended to return to the province, but the 
cour&e of events led him to defer another voyage from 
time to time. Being left a widower, he, in January, 
1696, married Hannah Callowhill, the daughter of a 



16 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Bristol acquaintance of many years. She afterwards 
became a prominent figure in the affairs of the colony. 

During Penn's long absence from the province, 
affairs did not always run smoothly, friction in the 
government and dissatisfaction among the settlers 
finally making his return imperative. 

He came in 1699, bringing with him his new wife, 
and fully exi:)ecting to spend the remainder of his days 
on the banks of the Delaware. During the ensuing two 
years he was busily engaged in shaping the govern- 
ment to meet the needs and demands of the rapidly 
growing population of the province. Penn's first act 
on assuming the government was to publish a procla- 
mation against pirates and contraband traders. The 
robber spirit was rampant on the seas in those days, 
and the shores and bays of the Delaware were highly 
favored places for these marauders of the deep, be- 
cause the government, being dominated by the Friends, 
was disinclined to use force to capture or repel them. 

Penn scarcely began to feel settled in the stately 
mansion which had been built for him during his- ab- 
sence, when he received news from England requiring 
his immediate return. Among other things, his ene- 
mies had introduced a bill in the House of Lords for 
seizing his province and vesting it in the crown. 

A& soon as the Indians heard that Onas was to 
return, they came from all parts of the country to take 
leave of him. They had a premonition that he would 
never return to them, and clung more closely to his 
words because they feared that his children would not 
treat them in the same kindly way. Events proved 
that their fears were well founded in both respects. 

Penn sailed from Philadelphia on the first of 
November, 1701, landing at Portsmouth six weeks 
later. During his absence Parliament had tried to get 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 17 

hold of his province, and though failing, had succeeded 
in passing an act requiring the assent of the crown to 
the appointment of a deputy governor. 

Penn's closing years were spent in pecuniary dis- 
tress. He had expended vast sums of money on Penn- 
sylvania and on the oppressed of his sect, besides hav- 
ing neglected his private affairs. To make matters 
worse, he was shamefully robbed by his steward, 
Philip Ford, who took advantage of Penn's confidence 
to ruin him. 

Several times he narrowly escaped losing title to 
Pennsylvania as a result of financial difficulties. In 
1712 Penn su&tained a paralytic stroke, from the 
effects of which he never fully recovered. He passed 
away at Eushcomb, Buckinghamshire, England, on 
July 30, 1718, aged seventy-four years. He was the 
noblest character in America's colonial history, while 
his name is justly enshrined in the hearts of men as 
that of the greatest champion of human rights of his 
time. 

The widow of Penn became the executrix of his es- 
tate during the minority of his children, and was for a 
period the nominal head of the colonial government. 
While she administered the affairs of the estate with 
much shrewdness, the patriarchial relation which had 
subsisted between Penn and his colony was at an end, 
because the interest which his heirs took in the 
province was of a mercenary character. 

Especially noticeable was this change in the treat- 
ment accorded the Indians in arranging for the pur- 
chase of their lands. 

The charter which King Charles gave Penn made 
him the largest land owner in the world. It gave him 
a legal title to 47,000,000 acres; and had he been so 
minded, he might have taken forcible possession of the 



18 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

country. He was honest and broad-minded enough, 
however, to recognize the fact that while the King per- 
haps had a legal right to transfer the title to this large 
domain to him, he had no moral right to do so, the 
English claim to the territory resting on the flimsy 
assertion that Henry Hudson, the discoverer of the 
Delaware bay, although cruising in the service of the 
Dutch at the time, was born an Englishman. Penn's 
sense of honor did not permit him to wrest the soil of 
Pennsylvania by force from the people to whom God 
and nature had given it, nor to establish his title in 
blood. He considered the King's charter as nothing 
more than a conveyance of the right to preemption, 
and by purchases and treaties secured his real title 
from the aborigines. During Penn's life-time only 
a small quantity of land along the Delaware had been 
purchased of the Indians. It was not enough to en- 
danger their means of subsistence, and if a new claim- 
ant appeared from time to time, something more was 
given to satisfy him, and a deed was taken from him. 

According to tradition, one of Penn's purchases was 
to include land "as far back as a man could walk in 
three days. ' ' 

Penn and several Indians started at the mouth of 
the Neshaminy creek, not far from Philadelphia, to 
walk out the purchase. They walked leisurely, after 
the Indian manner, sitting down occasionally to smoke 
their pipes, eat biscuit and cheese, and drink wine. 
After going a day and a half, Penn marked a spruce 
tree, near the present site of Wrightstown, Bucks 
county, informing his companions that the distance 
traversed would give him enough land for his present 
needs, leaving the remainder to be ascertained at a 
future day. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 19 

This arrangement, while entirely creditable to Penn, 
who did not show the disposition of the land grabber, 
eventually proved ruinous to the Indians. The walk 
was not completed during Penn's life-time, while the 
settlers attracted to his province kept crowding 
farther and farther into the Indian country. When 
the Indians protested to the proprietaries that their 
lands were being usurped and their hunting grounds 
despoiled, they were always reminded of the addi- 
tional land to which the whites were entitled by virtue 
of the uncompleted walk of William Penn, and the 
treaty which he had negotiated. Matters were allowed 
to drag along in this unsatisfactory manner until 1737, 
when, in response to the demands of the Indians it was 
agreed that the walk should be finished, and the 
boundaries of the purchase definitely defined. While 
negotiations were being conducted, the proprietaries 
caused a preliminary or trial walk to be made to ascer- 
tain how much land could be secured. In order that 
the longest distance possible might be covered, axe- 
men were sent ahead to cut a pathway through the 
forests. The men who had held out best in the trial 
walk were those selected by the proprietaries to make 
the decisive effort. Edward Marshall, James Yeates, 
and Solomon Jennings, all noted for their powers of 
endurance, were the men called upon to make the walk. 
Timothy Smith, sheriff of Bucks county, and John 
Chapman, a surveyor, were engaged to accompany the 
trio on horseback and to carry provisions and stimu- 
lants for them. It was arranged that the Indians 
should send some of their young men along to see that 
the walk was fairly and honestly made. 

The starting point was fixed at a large chestnut tree, 
near the Wrightstown meeting-house, in Bucks county, 



20 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

and the walkers were promised five pounds in money 
and five hundred acres in land. 

Early on the morning of the 19th of September, 1737, 
the day agreed upon for the walk, Marshall, Yeates, 
and Jennings, their hands touching the tree, like run- 
ners about to begin a race, waited for the command to 
start. As the sun appeared upon the horizon, the 
signal was given by Sheriff Smith, and the men 
started. Yeates led the way with a light step; next 
came Jennings and two Indian walkers, while Marshall 
came last. He swung a hatchet in his hand and walked 
with an easy, careless lope. 

The walkers, stimulated by the promised reward 
seemed untiring. The party stopped fifteen minutes 
for lunch with an Indian trader named Wilson near 
what is now the northern boundary line of Bucks 
county, after which the walk was continued. The 
Lehigh was forded a mile below Bethlehem, and cross- 
ing the Blue mountains at Smith's Gap, near what is 
now the southeastern corner of Carbon county, all 
save Jennings slept at night on the northern slope. He 
had given out before reaching the Lehigh, and although 
he succeeded in reaching his home, which was situated 
near the point where Allentown was started about a 
quarter of a century later, he never fully recovered his 
health. Yeates collapsed at the foot of the mountain 
when the walk was resumed on the morning of the 
second day. When taken up he was entirely blind ; he 
died three days later. 

Marshall, however, held out until noon, when he 
threw himself at full length upon the ground and 
grasped a sapling which was marked as the end of the 
line. 

The distance covered during the course of the walk 
is variously estimated, some placing it as low as fifty- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 21 

five miles, while others aver it to have been as high as 
eighty-six miles. Naturally, the Indians who accom- 
panied the walkers were disgusted by the performance. 
One of their number, in speaking about it afterwards, 
remarked: ''No sit down to smoke — no shoot a squir- 
rel ; but lun, lun, lun all day long. ' ' 

When the walk has been finished, it still remained 
to run the line to the Delaware. The Indians main- 
tained that, starting from the extreme northwesterly 
point reached by Marshall, the line should be run 
straight to the Delaware. Instead of this it was 
slanted northward to such a degree as to take in about 
twice at much territory as would have bee a included by 
the other arrangement. Again, while the walk had 
been made through Smith's Gap, terminating near the 
Tobyhanna creek, on the borders of Monroe and Car- 
bon counties, the arbitrary line was run through 
Lehigh Gap, ending in what is now Penn Forest town- 
ship, directly opposite Mauch Chunk. 

The lines included nearly all the lands within the 
forks of the Deleware (i. e., between the Delaware and 
the Lehigh) and practically all the valuable territory 
south of the Blue Ridge. 

The Minisink flats, celebrated as hunting grounds of 
the Indians, were contained in that portion of the pur- 
chase lying north of the Lehigh, and the aborigines 
parted with these very reluctantly. They rightly felt 
that they had been robbed in the whole transaction, 
flatly refusing to move from the land which was now 
claimed by the whites, but which they still considered 
their own. Finally the assistance of the Iroquois was 
asked to get them out. The Iroquois had long held the 
Minisinks in bondage as women, a most humiliating 
condition. Responding to the summons to come and 
remove their vassals, Canassatego, the spokesman of 



22 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

the Iroquois, thus addressed the despairing Dela- 
wares: '*How came you to take it upon you to sell 
lands at all? We conquered you; we made women of 
you. For this land you claim you have been furnished 
with clothes, meat and drink, and now you want it 
again, like the children that you are. We charge you to 
remove instantly; we don't give you liberty to think 
about it. You are women. Take the advice of a wise 
man and go at once ! ' ' 

Notwithstanding their abject condition, the Dela- 
wares still had a sense of wrong as keen as in the days 
of their greatness; but from the imperious judgment 
of the Iroquois there was no appeal. The Minisinks 
sorrowfully made preparations to go to Wyoming, and 
feeling that they would never return, burnt their huts 
to signify their final departure. The message of the 
Iroquois was effective ; the land was given over to the 
whites, and one of the most villainous transactions in 
the early annals of Pennsylvania was consummated. 
Thomas Penn, one of the sons of William Penn by his 
second wife, was a prominent figure in this outrage 
against the Indians. Such, in brief, is the story of the 
disgraceful ''Walking Purchase." From this time 
forth, the Delawares cherished an implacable hatred 
toward those who had robbed them of their birth-right. 
Years later, when the posture of affairs gave them the 
longed for opportunity, the Delawares took their re- 
venge, and the woeful destruction of human life and 
Xjroperty which took place on the Blue mountain 
frontier was the heavy price exacted for the unscrupu- 
lous conduct of the proprietaries. 

The Penns acquired title to the major portion of the 
soil of the province by five great treaties with the 
Indians. The last and largest purchase made by them 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 23 

was consummated in 1768, comprising an irregular 
belt of land extending from the extreme northeastern 
to the extreme southwestern part of the province. 
Usually the lines of these purchases were very vague 
and ill-defined. 

All, or nearly all, of the territory now contained 
within the borders of Carbon county was included in 
the purchase of 1749, comprising a narrow belt of land 
running diagonally from Pike to Dauphin county. 
This purchase was made from the Six Nations, and not 
from the Deleware occupants of the soil, the price paid 
being five hundred pounds. 

As time passed on and as the population grew, it 
began to be felt that the old system of proprietary 
ownership was inconsistent with the best interests and 
happiness of the people. Soon after the breaking out 
of the Revolutionary War, this feeling grew to a con- 
viction. 

Pennsylvania adopted a constitution in 1776, and 
soon thereafter a series of acts were passed, vesting 
the estates of the proprietaries in the commonwealth, 
and the fudal relation created by the charter of King 
Charles was dissolved. This action was taken directly 
in response to the recommendation of the Continental 
Congress, which urged all the colonies to form new 
governments which should be independent of the Eng- 
lish crown and foreign proprietaries. At the time the 
divesting acts were passed, the proprietaries were two 
grandsons of William Penn, the founder — John, the 
son of Richard, and John, the son of Thomas Penn. 
The state voted them 130,000 pounds by way of com- 
pensation, which was paid with interest within eight 
years after the close of the war. Besides this sum, the 
Penn family received additional compensation in the 



24 HISTORY OF CABBON COUNTY. 

form of an annuity of 4,000 pounds from the British 
government. Strange as it may seem, this annuity was 
paid to the descendants of the founder of Pennsylvania 
until recent years. 



CHAPTER II. 

MORAVIANS SETTLE CAEBON COUNTY. 

The Christian society known as the Moravian 
Brethren had its origin among the religious movements 
in Bohemia which followed the martyrdom of John 
Huss at the hands of the Council of Constance. Huss 
was burned at the stake, and his ashes thrown into the 
Rhine in the year 1415, while the history of the society 
which was formed by his followers can be traced back 
to 1457. 

When Luther appeared, the Moravians numbered 
about two hundred thousand people; but in the deso- 
lating wars which followed, they became almost ex- 
tinct. 

Standing forth prominently among the leaders of 
this society was Nicolaus Ludwig, Count Zinzendorf. 
He was descended from an ancient Austrian family, 
and was born May 26, 1700, at Dresden. Educated at 
Halle and at the university of Wittenberg, he had 
planned to follow the career of a diplomat. Subse- 
quent to his marriage to the Countess Erdmuth, how- 
ever, he embraced the faith of the Moravians, and re- 
solved to devote his life and fortune to the spread of 
the gospel. In 1722 he offered his persecuted brethren 
an asylum on his estate. A number came, and thus 
Herrnhut became the nucleus of a new growth. The 
original Moravians were Slavonic; the revival brought 
in the Germans. Unlike many of the sects, the Mora- 
vians had no distrust of learning, and they formed a 
cultured, devoted society for the propagation of Chris- 
tianity at home and abroad. 

25 



26 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

Persecuted in the old world, they sought an asylum 
in the new. Count Zinzendorf obtained a grant of 
land in Georgia, and in 1735 a settlement was begun. 
Under the leadership of Bishop Nitschmann a church 
was organized the following year. Ere long war be- 
tween England and Spain interfered with the work, 
and the Moravians, refusing to bear arms because to 
do so was contrary to their religious principles, emi- 
grated to Philadelphia with George Whitefield, the 
famous preacher. They bought a domain of five thou- 
sand acres at the Forks of the Delaware, and began to 
build a large school house for negro children. 

The land was purchased by Whitefield, but nomi- 
nally it belonged to the Countess von Zinzendorf. A 
question of dictrine soon caused a rupture, and the 
Moravians were ordered to leave. At this stage of 
affairs Bishop Nitschmann returned from Europe and 
purchased Bethlehem, an extensive tract on the Lehigh 
river, ten miles south of Whitefield 's land, and the 
colony again began work. Afterwards, Whitefield 's 
land was also purchased, and called the Barony of 
Nazareth. On this tract several settlements were or- 
ganized. The expenses of emigration remaining un- 
paid, the Brethren united in a semi-communistic as- 
sociation, Bethlehem forming the center. It was a 
communism not of goods, but of labor. Each settler 
was free to choose or reject the plan, while retaining 
exclusive control of his property. Participants gave 
time and work, receiving in return the necessaries and 
comforts of life. This system was called economy, and 
was admirably adapted to their peculiar wants. It 
continued for twenty years, sufficing to pay the ex- 
penses of ordinary emigration, to furnish the colony 
with daily support, and to maintain a mission among 
the Indians, besides an extensive itinerary among the 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 27 

white settlers from Maine to Georgia. The Moravians 
were a missionary church. 

From the beginning they sought to Christianize the 
Indians; nor were their efforts entirely unavailing. 
Believers in peace, like the Friends, and making their 
professions good by daily practices, they gained the 
confidence of the aborigines by treating them with in- 
flexible honesty, thus preparing the way for the ac- 
ceptance of their religious teachings. For many 
years the Moravians continued their work with vary- 
ing success. Intemperance and wars between the In- 
dians and the whites were the chief hinderances. 

Count Zinzendorf came to Pennsylvania late in 
1741, being accompanied by his eldest daughter, Be- 
nigna. He visited the Brethren's settlement on the 
Lehigh on December 24, and named it Bethlehem. 
During the ensuing six months, animated by religious 
zeal, he traveled through southeastern Pennsylvania, 
supplying destitute and isolated neighborhoods with 
the means of grace and education, organized churches, 
wrote multitudinous theological papers and essays, and 
preached statedly at Germantown and Philadelphia. 

In June he again repaired to Bethlehem, and having 
organized the Moravians there into a congregation, he 
set off for a tour of exploration into the Indian country, 
visiting various tribes, and cultivating their friendship 
and good will. At the close of 1742 he left for Europe, 
where he died in 1760. 

The number of Indian converts maintained by the 
Moravian congregation at Bethlehem kept steadily 
growing. Augmented by Mohegans from Shekomeko, 
in the state of Connecticut, and Patchgatgoch, in New 
York, near the borders of the first named state, their 
number grew to such proportions that it was found in- 
convenient to properly care for them all at one place. 



28 HISTOEY OP CARBON COUNTY. 

Accordingly, in the early part of the year 1746, a 
mission was established near the month of the Mahon- 
ing creek, on the west side of the Lehigh river. 

The land thus occupied was then contained within 
the limits of Bucks county, becoming a part of North- 
ampton when that county was organized in 1752. At 
a later date it became a part Carbon, and the settle- 
ment which was there planted was the first that was 
made by white men in this county. The location was 
selected by Count Zinzendorf in 1742, when, in com- 
pany with several friendly Indians, he ascended the 
Lehigh on his tour of exploration. The land on which 
the mission was established was purchased in 1745, 
there being one hundred and ninety-seven acres in the 
tract. 

The Moravians named the place Gnadenhiitten, 
meaning Tents of Grace, or, more literally speaking, 
Mercy Huts. South Lehighton now occupies the site 
where the mission stood, and smoke wreaths from the 
tall chimneys of flourishing industries brood over the 
peaceful valley where civilization gained its first foot- 
hold in this immediate region of the state. The first 
work done here was performed under Martin Mack, a 
missionary, the white men and the Indians laboring 
side by side in the enterprise of clearing the ground 
and erecting the necessary buildings. 

The improvements were meant to be but temporary, 
because it was designed from the first to locate the In- 
dians permanently on the Susquehanna; the project 
was, however postponed from time to time, and thus 
the settlement on the Mahoning grew, and became the 
seat of a most flourishing mission. The farm buildings 
lay at the foot of the hill, near the creek; on its first 
ascent were the huts of the Indians, forming a cres- 
cent ; behind these was an orchard, and on the summit. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 29 

the graveyard. The latter was laid out in August, 
1746. Jeannette, the wife of Martin Mack, lies buried 
here, her dust mingling with that of about two score 
others, both Indian and white, who died at the mission. 
Each Indian family was allotted a portion of land, and 
each had its own house. A little log church was built 
in the valley. 

On the eighteenth of August, 1746, the Indians and 
the missionaries held a love feast, partaking of the first 
fruits of the land and of their labor, while offering 
thanks to God for the blessings that He had bestowed. 
The sound of song arose from the forest hamlet morn- 
ing and evening, and the labors of the day were always 
begun and concluded with prayer. Portions of the 
Bible were translated into the Mohegan tongue, to be 
read whenever the congregation was assembled, and 
devout discourses were delivered every Sunday by the 
missionaries. 

The holy sacrament was administered to the congre- 
gation once every month; this day was known among 
the Indians as "The Great Day." Christian Ranch 
and Martin Mack, who first ministered to the spiritual 
needs of the congregation on the Mahoning were suc- 
ceeded by others after a comparatively short period, it 
being the policy of the Moravians to make frequent 
changes, so that the Indians might not form too strong 
an attachment for their religious leaders, but learn to 
place their hope and dependence on God alone. 

The church built during the first year of the mission 
was soon too small to accommodate the growing con- 
gregation, and the missionaries usually preached in the 
open air, that all might hear. 

Successive parcels of land were added to the original 
tract on both sides of the Lehigh, until 1382 acres be- 
longed to the establishment. 



30 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY, 

The affairs of the station being promising, Bishop 
Watteville went to Gnadenhiitten in 1740, and laid the 
foundation of a new church, which was dedicated by 
Bishop Cammerhoff on November 14 of that year. 

There were accessions from Pachgatgoch and Wech- 
quetank in 1747 and 1748, and from Meniolagomeka 
in 1754. The last named placed lay in Smith's Valley, 
eight miles west of the Wing Gap, on the north bank 
of the Aquashicola, in Monroe county. The Moravians 
conducted a mission here, but it was finally absorbed 
by that at Gnadenhiitten, the converts being Delawares. 

The congregation at Gnadenhiitten now numbered 
several hundred people. 

During 1754, the land on the Mahoning being impov- 
erished, the seat of the mission was transferred to the 
east side of the river, where Weissport now stands. 
The transfer was made in the month of May. The 
place was called New Gnadenhiitten. The dwellings 
were removed from the opposite side of the river, and 
a new chapel was erected. 

In the removal of the buildings, the chapel only ex- 
cepted, the Indians were kindly assisted by the congre- 
gations at Bethlehem, Nazareth, Christianbrunn, and 
Guadenthal, who furnished not only workmen and ma- 
terials, but even contributions of money. 

The work progressed so rapidly that twenty dwell- 
ings were ready for occupation early in June, while the 
foundation stone of the new chapel was laid on the 
eleventh of that month. Bishop Spangenberg preached 
a powerful sermon on this occasion. The houses were 
so placed as to form a street, on one side of which 
lived the Mohegans, and on the other the Delawares. 

The Brethren at Bethlehem took the culture of the 
old land on the Mahoning upon themselves, made a 
plantation of it for the use of the Indian congregation, 




Teedyuscung. 
From a Statue in Fairmount Park. Philadelphia. 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 31 

and converted the old chapel into a dwelling, both for 
the use of those who cared for the plantation and for 
the accommodation of missionaries passing to and fro 
along the Lehigh. 

The mission at Gnadenhiitten was connected with 
that at Bethlehem by a road which was built during the 
third year of the history of the first named congrega- 
tion. 

Among the Indians who came under the influence of 
the Moravians was Teedyuscung, who was destined to 
become the last great war king of the Delawares. 

According to his own statement, he was born about 
the year 1700, near Trenton, New Jersey. In this 
neighborhood his ancestors of the Lenape had been 
seated from time immemorial. 

Old Captain Harris, a noted Delaware was his 
father. He was the father of a family of high spirited 
sons who were not in good repute with their white 
neighbors. The latter named them, it is true, for men 
of. their own people, and Teedyuscung they termed 
"Honest John"; yet they disliked and feared them; 
for the Harrises were known to be moody and resent- 
ful, and were heard to speak threatening words as 
they saw their paternal acres passing out of their 
hands, and their hunting grounds converted into pas- 
tures and cultivated fields. These they left with re- 
luctance, and migrated westward, in company with 
others of the Turtles or Delawares of the lowlands. 
Crossing the great river of their nation, they entered 
the province of Pennsylvania in its forks, that is to 
say, on the north side of the Lehigh, which river was 
in earlier times termed the west fork of the Delaware. 
This was about 1730. Finding no white men here they 
lived the life which they loved so well until the advent 
of the Scotch-Irish immigrants, who began to crowd 



32 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

the Delawares in the forks south of the Blue mountain 
as early as 1735. 

Count Zinzendorf 's reconnoisance in 1742 introduced 
the Moravian missionaries into the homes of the east- 
ern Delawares; and from that time they preached the 
gospel to them on both sides of the mountain. 

Teedyuscung too heard them, first on the Aquashi- 
cola and then on the Mahoning. 

Impressed by the words of the plainly clad preachers 
from Bethlehem, his religious feelings were stirred, 
and he sought for admission into Christian fellowship 
with the Mohegans and Delawares of Gnadenhiitten by 
baptism. 

The missionaries hesitated long before they acceded 
to his request, for they tell us that he was as unstable 
as water and like a reed shaken before the wind. 
Hence they granted him a time of probation, and as he 
reiterated his request at its close, they consented to 
admit him into their communion. He was baptised by 
Bishop Cammerhoff in the little chapel on the Mahon- 
ing in 1750. The estimation in which he was held by 
the Moravians is indicated by the entry which the 
Bishop performing the rite made in his record: 
''March 12. To-day I baptized Tatiuskundt, the chief 
among sinners." 

Thus the straight limbed Delaware warrior became a 
member of the Christian church. But the lessons of 
the Divine Master whom he had promised to follow 
proved distasteful to him. Every fibre of bis being 
rebelled against the idea of the renunciation of self, 
the practice of humility, the forgiveness of injuries, 
and the return of good for evil. These doctrines did 
not accord well with the lessons which he had learned 
in the stern school of nature, in which he had for half 
a century been an observant pupil. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 33 

Hence he ill brooked the restraints imposed upon 
him in the *'Huts of Grace," and resisted the influence 
of the Good Spirit that sought to dispossess him of the 
resentment that burned in his soul when he remem- 
bered how his countrymen were being injured by the 
whites, and how they had been traduced and were being 
oppressed by the imperious Iroquois, who had made 
them their vassals. 

The Moravians, it is true, treated the Indians justly 
and fairly ; but these could not atone by their kindness 
and honesty for the wrongs which other white settlers 
along the border were daily heaping upon the aborigi- 
nes against a day of terrible retribution. 



CHAPTER III. 

GNADENHUTTEN DESTROYED IN INDIAN UPRISING. 

The crucial hour in the history of North America 
was soon to strike. Although there had been no for- 
mal declaration of war, the English and the French 
had long been maneuvering in the gigantic game that 
was being i)layed by the rival nations for supremacy 
in the New World. 

The issue of the conflict which was then impending 
was, after years of sanguinary struggle, determined on 
the Plains of Abraham, giving to the English tongue 
and to the institutions of the Germanic race the better 
part of half a continent for all future time. Appre- 
ciating the help which might be rendered by the In- 
dians, the French emissaries, bent on territorial ag- 
grandizement, made alluring representations to the 
dusky dwellers of the forest, in which the prospect of 
recovering their national independence and the homes 
of their forefathers was flatteringly held out. The con- 
fidence of the Indians in the descendants of the "good 
Penn," whose memory they revered, had already been 
seriously impaired ; and under these circumstances it is 
not surprising that the designing French were able to 
secure their allegiance and good will. 

The Indians along the Susquehanna who were favor- 
able to the interests of the French looked with much 
disfavor on the mission of the Moravians at Gnaden- 
hiitten. Messenger after messenger came down from 
that region with sinister invitations to the reluctant 
Delawares and Mohegans at Gnadenhiitten to come up 
to them and plant at Wyoming. Teedyuscung had 
already yielded to the persuasions of his untrained 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 35 

countrymen from the Minisinks, who had come to the 
smithy at Gnadenhiitten, bringing with them their un- 
shod ponies and broken flint locks, preparing for war. 
They told him that the hour had come to place things 
in readiness to rise against their oppressors, and they 
asked him to be their leader and king. This was in the 
spring of 1754. Abraham Shabash, the first of the 
patriarchs, also turned his back on the whites, and the 
two chieftains together prevailed upon seventy of the 
''brown hearts," as the missionaries termed the In- 
dians, to remove to Wyoming, there to live neutral, or 
to array themselves under their standard. Further 
efforts to induce the rest of the Indians at the mission 
to imitate the example of these seventy in removing to 
Wyoming proved unavailing, and this roused the 
hatred of Teedyuscung and his dissatisfied followers. 

"Are they not our brethren, and is it not best that 
they should return to their own people!" was their in- 
sidious plea. 

Meanwhile they and others reasoned among them- 
selves : "If these Moravian Indians continue at Gnad- 
enhiitten they may thwart us in our plans when the 
time comes to take up the hatchet ; they may become in- 
formers, or they may be employed as scouts and run- 
ners; and even if they hold themselves neutral, their 
proximity to the settlements will embarrass our move- 
ments." Foiled in effecting the coveted removal, the 
chieftain spoke angrily of the Moravians, and the evil 
report was spread throughout the Indian country that 
the palefaced preachers from Bethlehem were craftily 
holding the Indians in bondage. To render the situa- 
tion of the Moravians still more trying the mission 
among the aborigines was loudly denounced by that 
class of white people who profited by degrading and 
defrauding the Indians. These men published the mis- 



36 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

sionaries to the world as an association in league with 
the savages, in the interests of the French, and as de- 
serving of being treated as a common enemy. Thus a 
strong feeling was aroused against the Moravians. 

In July, 1755, Braddock's army was disastrously 
routed and almost annihilated on the banks of the 
Monongahela. His defeat left the whole border of the 
province deplorably defenseless, and was the signal 
for a general uprising among the Indians. The Dela- 
wares of the East met the Delawares of the West in 
council on the Allegheny and prepared for war. They 
were especially bitter in their denunciations of the 
fraud that had been perpetrated by the whites in the 
walking purchase of 1737. Wherever the white man 
was settled within this disputed territory, there they 
resolved to strike him as best they could with the most 
approved weapons of their savage warfare. And that 
the blow might be effectually dealt, each warrior chief 
was instructed to kill, scalp, and burn within the pre- 
sincts of his birth-right, and all simultaneously, from 
the frontiers down into the heart of the settlements, 
until the English should sue for peace and promise re- 
dress. 

Teedyuscung assembled the Delawares and the allied 
Shawnese and Mohicans on the Susquehanna, where a 
plan of campaign was mapped out for the coming 
autumn and winter. 

Soon the whole frontier along the line of the Blue 
mountains, extending from the Delaware to the Sus- 
quehanna, was bathed in blood. The terrifying sound 
of the war-hoop, intermingled with the shrieks and 
groans of the dying, echoed along the border. 

Sparing neither man, woman nor child, the Indians 
indiscriminately killed, mutilated and scalped the de- 
fenseless settlers and their families, while their humble 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 37 

homes were reduced to ashes. The Indians had their 
hiding place in the dark recesses of the Great Swamp, 
later known as the Shades of Death, or the Pine 
Swamp. Here Teedyuscung gathered together hi& 
forces, as the tempest marshals the battalions of its 
wrath in the bosom of the thunder-cloud, and would 
suddenly emerge at a time and place least expected, 
carrying havoc and consternation into the settlements. 

Occasionally there would be indications of these im- 
pending ravages that filled the hearts of the settlers 
with foreboding. Perhaps the distant report of a gun 
would be heard from the solitary woodland, where 
there was known to be no white man ; the cattle which 
had been wandering in the woods would sometimes re- 
turn home wounded; or an Indian or two would be 
seen lurking about the skirts of the sombre forests and 
suddenly disappearing, as the lightening may at times 
be seen playing silently about the edge of the cloud that 
gives warning of the approach of the storm. 

Many of the people, abandoning all their belongings, 
sought madly to escape, only to be suddenly overtaken 
in many instances, and mercilessly slain. 

As winter came on, the border was well-nigh de- 
populated of white people ; but the Moravians made a 
covenant together to remain undaunted in the place 
alloted them by Providence. In so doing they acted 
unwisely. For on the evening of the twenty-fourth of 
November, they were suddenly and horribly aroused 
from their sense of fancied security, the mission-house 
on the Mahoning being attacked by Indians, burned to 
the ground, and ten of its inhabitants massacred, while 
another was carried away a captive. 

It was in the gloaming, says a Moravian chronicler, 
and they were about finishing their evening meal when 



38 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

the furious barking of dogs in the farm yard apprised 
them of the approach of strangers. 

Joachim Senseman being reminded that the meeting 
house was not locked hastened thither to secure it. 
This precaution saved him. 

The barking of the dogs had been indeed porten- 
tious ; for soon after there were voices, and then foot- 
steps were heard without. 

Martin Nitschmann opened the door to ascertain 
whose they were. 

A blinding flash, followed by a terrible roar revealed 
the hateful countenances of twelve Shawnese, painted 
for war, and Nitschmann fell to the floor riddled with 
bullets. Joseph Sturgis was also grazed by two bul- 
lets. The door standing ajar, the attacking party 
poured a random volley into the room, killing or 
wounding John Lesley, Martin Presser, and John Gat- 
termeyer. 

Those who remained retreated preciptately into an 
adjoining apartment, and from there up the stairway 
to the loft, closely followed by the Indians, who raised 
a terrific war-whoop. 

Susanna Nitschmann was overtaken on the stairs, 
and pierced by a ball ; reeling backward, she fell into the 
hands of the enemy. Her piteous cries for help were 
unavailing; she was bound, gagged, and given to an 
attendant by her captor to grace his triumph on his 
return to his native village. 

Eight persons reached the attic, immediately barri- 
cading the trap door at the head of the steps. 

George Schweigert, a sturdy teamster, successfully 
resisted the desperate attempts of the assailants to 
force it with their hatchets and the butts of their guns. 
Foiled in their efforts to reach those for whose blood 
they thirsted, the Indians fired repeated volleys 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 



39 



through the floor, and some from without into the roof, 
in the hope of killing or bringing to terms the unfortu- 
nate beings within. Suddenly the shooting ceased. 
Deep silence prevailed, while hope revived in the hearts 
of the survivors. 

Soon they realized the terrible fate that awaited 
them. The torch had been applied, and the house was 
in flames. One of the number went to the window and 
shouted for help, but the only answer was the echo of 
his wailing cry. Among the fated company in the loft 
were three helpless and tender women, and it is re- 
corded that they were long the most composed. 

Anna Senseman was last seen seated upon a bed with 
folded hands and upturned face in an attitude of pious 
resignation. The second was a mother with an infant 
in her arms. Wrapping the child in her apron, she 
pressed it closely to her bosom and sat in silence ; for 
the flood of feeling and motherly affection that swept 
through her heart in that moment of peril and supreme 
anguish rendered her speechless. This was' Johanna, 
the wife of Gottlieb Anders, the gardener. 

At intervals, above the roar of the flames and the 
whoops and taunts of the Shawnese, were heard the 
piteous cries of the affrighted little one. 

Three of the beleaguered party could now endure the 
suspense no longer, and chose the desperate alterna- 
tive of risking their lives in an attempt to escape in 
preference to that of certain death by the horrors of 
fire. The first to take the awful leap was Joseph Stur- 
gis, a youth of seventeen years. Watching his chance 
at a moment when the vigilance of the sentinel on 
guard was relaxed, he jumped to the ground, ran for 

his life and won it. He lived many years thereafter. 
Susan Partsch followed Sturgis' example, reaching the 
meeting place without being detected. Here she se- 



40 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

creted herself for a time, leaving her covert on the 
approach of the Indians, later in the evening, and mak- 
ing her way falteringly down the valley toward the 
Lehigh. 

George Fabricius, a scholar, was the next to take the 
desperate leap. He did so with hesitation, having 
waited until goaded to the attempt by the fierce heat of 
the burning building. He fell as he reached the ground, 
but sprang quickly to his feet, probably feeling that he 
was safe. His hopes were of short duration. Being 
discovered, he was instantly pierced by two bullets, and 
sank to the earth. 

Rushing upon him, the infuriated Indians buried 
their tomahawks in his unresisting body and scalped 
him down to the eyes. His mutilated corpse was found 
the next day in a pool of blood on the spot where he 
had cruelly met his death. 

By its side, in mournful vigil, was couched his faith- 
ful dog. Five of the inmates of the house on the Ma- 
honing met death in the fire. 

When the attacking party made its first onslaught 
Joachim Senseman and George Partsch, who were with- 
out the house, made a brief reconnoisance of the 
position, which showed them the folly of any attempt 
to render assistance. They accordingly resolved to 
cross the river wthout delay and give the alarm to the 
inhabitants of New Gnadenhiitten. 

Their action was probably the means of saving the 
life of David Zeisberger, perhaps the most noted of all 
the missionaries of the Moravian church among the 
Indians. He had reached New Gnadenhiitten from 
Bethlehem early in the evening, and was preparing to 
go to the dwelling house on the Mahoning. Martin 
Mack advised him to wait until morning. He started 
on his journey, however, the chill autumnal winds sigh- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 41 

ing among the fallen leaves as he left his friends and 
started to cross the river. Shortly afterwards a cry of 
distress reached the mission house, but the splashing 
of the water by his horse prevented Zeisberger from 
hearing it. Mack ran to the Lehigh, where he met 
Senseman and Partsch, who conveyed to him the fear- 
ful intelligence of what was taking place at the house 
on the Mahoning. 

By this time the missionary had reached the oppo- 
site side of the river, and his friends called to him to 
turn back. He heard their voices, and hastened to re- 
ford the stream. Soon thereafter a pillar of flame rose 
in the direction of the Mahoning. 

The loyal Indians at New Gnadenhiitten, upon hear- 
ing the reports of the guns, and seeing the flames across 
the river, when informed of the cause, went imme- 
diately to the missionary in charge, and offered to 
attack the enemy. But being advised to the contrary, 
they fled precipitately into the woods. New Gnaden- 
hiitten was cleared in a few moments, while some who 
had already retired for the night, had scarce time to 
dress themselves. 

Having finished their bloody work on the Mahoning, 
the Indians proceeded to pillage and burn the remain- 
ing houses of the doomed settlement. First, the barn 
and stable, and next the kitchen, the bake house, the 
Single Brethren's house, the store, the mill, and, finally, 
the meeting house, until the whole valley was light as 
day with the glare of the conflagration, athwart which 
could be seen, in bold relief, the dusky figures of the 
fiendish Shawnese as they hastened to and fro in the 
closing scene of this sad tragedy. When their work 
was done, they gathered about the spring house, where 
they divided their plunder. They then soaked some 
bread in milk, feasted with blood-stained hands, and, 



42 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

loading their spoils on stolen horses, they filed off 
leisurely in the famous Warriors' Path that led to 
Wyoming. 

Their latter movements were observed by Susan 
Partsch, who has been mentioned as having escaped 
from the burning house, unperceived by the Indians. 
She and her husband were happily re-united the next 
morning, each having thought the other had been 
killed. 

Susanna Nitschmann was carried away a captive, 
and at Wyoming Christian Indian women ministered 
to her wants, and tried to shield her from a life more 
terrible than death. Her captors claimed her, dragged 
her to Tioga, and forced her to share the wigwam of 
a brutal Indian. The horror of her situation, together 
with the wound she had received, broke her strength. 
She spent her days and nights in weeping for half a 
year, when she was mercifully released from her suf- 
ferings by death. Thus the innocent Moravians, who 
had lived and labored for the good of the Indians, were 
visited with a terrible punishment for the crimes tliat 
unscrupulous men had committed against the aborig- 
ines. 

After the Indians had retired, the remains of those 
killed on the Mahoning were carefully collected from 
the ashes and ruins, and were solemnly interred. A 
broad marble slab in the graveyard at Lehighton, 
placed there in 1778, and a small white obelisk on a 
sandstone base, erected since that date, tell in brief 
the melancholy story of Gnadenhiitten, and preserve 
the names of those who fell as victims of the hate of 
the Indians. 

At Bethlehem the people had been in an agony of 
suspense, for all had seen the lurid glare beyond the 
Blue Ridge, made by the burning buildings, and had 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 43 

known that evil news of some kind would be borne to 
them in a few hours. 

The unwelcome intelligence was brought to them by 
David Zeisberger at three o'clock in themorning of the 
next day, and it was broken to the congregation, which 
had been summoned to meet in the chapel at five 
o'clock, by Bishop Spangenberg. On his way to Beth- 
lehem, the missionary passed a body of militia, who 
marched to within five miles of the scene of the mas- 
sacre; but fearing an ambushment, they did not ven- 
ture to give pursuit in the dark. Towards night of tho 
day after the tragedy, eight white people and between 
thirty and forty Indians, men, women and children, 
who had made their escape from New Gnadenhiitten, 
arrived at Bethlehem. 

With few exceptions, the remaining settlers of the 
upper end of Northampton county and along the Le- 
high Valley do^vn to the Irish settlement and below 
were precipitately pushing southward into the older 
and larger settlements of Bethlehem and Easton. 
Naturally, they were filled with the wildest alarm, and 
many were scantily clad, while all were entirely desti- 
tute. 

These unfortunate and panic-stricken people were 
received with the greatest kindness by the citfzens of 
the localities to which they fied. The Moravians of 
Bethlehem kept their wagons plying to and fro between 
the village and points eight or ten miles up the road, 
bringing in the women and children, who had become 
exhausted in their flight and sunk down by the wayside. 

A few white families still foolishly persisted in re- 
maining on the border after nearly all of their neigh- 
bors had fled, and some of these fell easy victims to 
the strategy and hate of the Indians. 



44 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Among the families who dared to remain in their 
homes after so many dreadful warnings was thai of 
Frederick Hoeth, living about twelve miles east of New 
Gnadenhiitten, or what is now Weissport. On the even- 
ing of the tenth of December, 1755, their habitation was 
attacked by a small party of Indians, six of the family 
killed, and two or three others carried away into cap- 
tivity, while the house was reduced to ashes. 

The family was at supper, when a volley was fired 
through the windows, killing Hoeth, and wounding a 
woman. The firing continued, and a few of the inmates 
of the doomed house fled into the open. The invaders 
at once applied the torch to the dwelling, stables, and 
an adjoining mill. 

Mrs. Hoeth sought shelter and security in the bake 
house, which was also set on fire. When unable longer 
to endure the resulting heat and smoke, the unfortu- 
nate woman rushed forth and dashed headlong into the 
Polio Poko creek, where she died, either by drowning 
or from the burns she had received. The Indians hor- 
ribly mutilated her body with knives and tomahawks. 
Three children were burned to death, while a mature 
daughter was killed and scalped. 

Unlike the peace-loving Moravians, who refused to 
bear arms, even to protect their own lives, the members 
of the Hoeth family, when attacked, made the best de- 
fense of which they were capable, and one Indian was 
killed and another wounded in the affray. 

Immediately following the massacre of Gnadenhiit- 
ten, the company of militia that Zeisberger passed on 
the way repaired to the scene of the murders. This 
body of troops was commanded by Captain Hay, and 
was re-inf orced by another company under Colonel An- 
derson. Captain Wilson, of Bucks county, with a com- 
pany of sixty or seventy men, also marched northward a 



HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 45 

few days after the massacre. These troops were posted 
at the deserted village to guard the mills, filled with 
grain that belonged to the Christian Indians, from 
being destroyed. They were also expected to protect 
the few remaining settlers about Gnadenhiitten. A 
temporary stockade was erected, and all would have 
been well had the troops been officered by men experi- 
enced in the tactics of Indian warfare. But this all- 
important qualification was lacking, and disaster soon 
followed. On New Year's Day, in 1756, a number of 
the garrison fell victims to an Indian stratagem. The 
soldiers, to vary the monotony of life at the fort, were 
skating on the ice which covered the Lehigh. While 
so engaged they caught sight of two Indians farther 
up the stream, and, thinking that it would be an easy 
matter to capture or kill them, gave chase. They 
gained rapidly upon the Indians, who proved to be 
decoys, skilfully manoeuvering to draw them into an 
ambush. The fort was now some distance behind, and 
a party of Indians suddenly sprang from a thicket in 
the rear of the soldiers, cutting off their retreat, and 
falling upon them with the fury of a whirlwind . The 
soldiers were taken entirely off their guard, and being 
outnumbered they were quickly dispatched. This inci- 
dent had such a depressing effect on the soldiers re- 
maining in the fort that many of them deserted. The 
others, thinking themselves incapable of holding the 
place, withdrew. This was the moment for which the 
savages had been waiting. Seizing all the portable 
property that to them seemed of any value, they fired 
the fort, the mills and the houses in which the Mo- 
hicans and the Delawares had so peacefully lived for a 
time, the settlement being totally destroyed in a few 
hours. 



46 HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

All these and countless similar acts of hostility 
finally awakened many who had been temporizing or 
believing that the blow would not fall on them to pre- 
pare for an efficient defense. There was no further 
time to be lost, because there was grave danger that 
this whole portion of the province might fall into the 
hands of the enemy. 



CHAPTER IV. 

BELATED MEASURES FOR DEFENSE OF FRONTIER. 

The defenseless condition in which the border of 
Pennsylvania was found at the breaking out of the 
French and Indian War is to be attributed largely 
to the fact that the policies of the province were 
moulded and directed principally by members of the 
Society of Friends. They, like the Moravians, were 
lovers of peace, and it was contrary to their avowed 
principles to engage in warfare. This being true, it 
was natural that they did not consider it necessary to 
prepare for war. Again, the duty of protecting the 
province devolved solely on the proprietaries, and 
until this time the government had very little to do 
with this important function. 

Aroused at last by the depredations perpetrated by 
hundreds of scalping parties and the loud complaints 
of the colonists, the assembly reluctanily enacted a 
militia law. But this encouraged a non-military spirit ; 
it prescribed no penalty for those who were unwilling 
to enlist ; the officers were elected by ballot, inadequate 
means existed for enforcing obedience ; the enlistment 
of persons under twenty-one was forbidden, and like- 
wise the march of men more than three days' journey 
from the inhabited parts of the province, or their de- 
tention in garrison for more than three weeks. 

The slight value of the law was destroyed by the 
preamble, which declared that the majority of the as- 
sembly was opposed to bearing arms, and that a com- 
pulsory militia law was unconstitutional. The law, 
however, was designed to encourage and protect volun- 
teer associations for the public defense. 

47 



43 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Later, the tardiness and reluctance of the assembly 
in making provisions for the protection of the settlers 
spurred the latter to make a formal protest to the 
English king. A committee was appointed by the 
privy council to investigate the truth of the charges 
contained in the protest, with the result that the con- 
duct of the assembly was condemned. The committee 
declared that the assembly of Pennsylvania was bound 
by the original compact to support the government 
and protect its subjects ; that the measures enacted for 
that purpose were inadequate; and that there was no 
hope for more effective ones so long as a majority 
of that body consisted of persons whose principles 
were opposed to military service, although they repre- 
sented less than one-sixth of the population. 

For three-quarters of a century the Friends had 
controlled the legislative destiny of the province, but 
now it was to pass from them forever. For a lime 
they continued to send a majority of the members of 
the assembly, but those who believed in the principle 
of non-resistance no longer gave the keynote to that 
body. 

At the time of the Indian uprising the Blue moun- 
tain practically marked the limit of actual settlement 
on the part of the white men. Standing, as it did on 
the verge of civilization, and forming in itself a natural 
barrier, it was but in accordance with reason, when the 
provincial government, late in 1755, with evident re- 
gret took the defense of the settlers into its own hands, 
to occupy it and to there stay the further encroach- 
ments of the enemy. It is well to bear in mind that 
the bloody work of the Indians was not performed by 
large bodies or any numbers combined; neither were 
the tactics of civilized warfare followed. But parties 
of from three to ten or twenty would creep noiselessly 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 49 

past alert and watchful sentries and suddenly fall 
upon their unsuspecting victims, just as suddenly dis- 
appearing after their dreadful work had been com- 
pleted, long before the alarm had been spread, and 
before the most active troops could overtake them. 
This required peculiar methods of defense, necessitat- 
ing the erection of forts not very distant from each 
other, which would occupy prominent points of ap- 
proach, and, if possible, be situated on elevated 
ground, thus furnishing a view of the danger in ad- 
vance. It was also important that these forts should 
be convenient of access to the settlers, who might, and 
constantly did, flee to them for refuge. And last, but 
by no means least, an abundant supply of water nearby 
was essential. 

Upon the occurrence of the first ravages of the In- 
dians, block houses were erected by the settlers them- 
selves, or farm houses were used as such, being located 
where the danger seemed most imminent, and without 
respect to any general plan. 

When the provincial government decided to assume 
the duty of protecting the settlers, one of the first 
steps taken was the appointment of two commission- 
ers, who were expeced to outline a plan of defense, and 
to supervise its execution. The men chosen for this 
responsible task were James Hamilton and Benjamin 
Franklin. Under their direction a chain of forts was 
established along the Blue mountain, reaching from 
the Susquehanna to the Delaware. The distance be- 
tween these forts was from ten to fifteen miles, de- 
pending upon the comparative situation of the promi- 
nent gaps, which gateways were invariably occupied. 
Sometimes the chain of defenses ran on the north side 
of the mountain, then again on the south side. Fre- 
quently both sides of the mountain were occupied, as 



50 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

the needs of the population demanded. Sometimes 
these forts consisted of defenses previously erected 
by the settlers, which were available for the purpose, 
and of which the government took possession, whilst 
others were newly erected. 

Among the defenses already existing when Hamilton 
and Franklin began the prosecution of their arduous 
and necessary undertaking was Fort Lehigh, situated 
just north of Lehigh Gap, and occupying the present 
site of Palmerton. Properly speaking it was only a 
block house, but it commanded an important position, 
and was for a time garrisoned by the provincial sol- 
diers. There was also a fort erected on the south side 
of the Blue mountain at Slatington, these two defenses 
being but a few miles apart. The most important, 
however, of all the forts along the Blue mountain, and 
the first to be erected, was Fort Allen, situated at New 
Gnadenhiitten, where Weissport now stands. The ex- 
pediency of fortifying this location was first pointed 
out by Bishop A. G. Spangenberg, then the head of the 
Moravian congregation at Bethlehem, and a man of 
practical wisdom. In a letter to the provincial govern- 
ment, dated November 29, 1755, he gives it as his 
opinion that the safety of all the settlements lying 
along the Lehigh and the Delaware, even as far down 
as Philadelphia, itself, depended on immediately erect- 
ing a fort at this place. Continuing, he declares: '*If 
the French once come and build there a fort, it will cost 
as much, if I am not mistaken, as the taking of Crown 
Point to get it out of their hands; for if they put a 
garrison in the gaps of the mountains, and make there 
also a fortification, you cannot come at them at all with 
any great gims." In closing, he also refers to the 
property of the Christian Indians remaining there with- 
out adequate protection, at the same time offering the 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 51 

government ten acres of land on which to erect a fort. 
The erection of a fortification at the point indicated by 
Bishop Spangenberg was determined upon about the 
middle of December, partly because of the valuable 
property remaining there after the Moravians had de- 
serted it, but chiefly because of its central and com- 
manding location. 

Hamilton and Franklin had ordered Captain Hay 
to that point, not alone to guard the property there, 
but to build the fort. The disastrous developments of 
the first of January, when the Indians succeeded in 
scaring ofiF the soldiers under his command, and firing 
the settlement and the stockade which had been erected, 
proved conclusively that he was unfit for the duty to 
which he had been assigned. Occurrences similar to 
this were taking place at other points throughout 
Northampton county and along the border. 

Naturally this did not have a reassuring effect upon 
the people. Everyone being filled with excitement and 
terror, it is not to be wondered at if the settlers, under 
these conditions, made unreasonable demands on the 
government. To such an extent does this seem to have 
been done that Governor Morris became somewhat im- 
patient and discouraged. On January 5, 1756, he 
writes from Reading to the provincial council at Phila- 
delphia, saying in part: 

''The commissioners (Hamilton and Franklin) have 
done everything that was proper in the county of 
Northampton ; but the people are not satisfied, nor by 
what I can learn from the commissioners would they 
be, unless every man's house were protected by a fort 
and a company of soldiers, and themselves paid for 
staying at home and doing nothing. There are in the 
county three hundred men in the pay of the govern- 
ment, and yet, from the disposition of the inhabitants, 



52 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

the want of conduct in the officers, and of courage and 
discipline in the men, I am fearful that the whole coun- 
try will fall into the enemy's hands." 

In casting about for a man with the qualifications 
necessary to bring order and security out of all this 
chaos and confusion. Governor Morris finally pre- 
vailed upon Franklin himself to take personal charge 
of the northwestern frontier, giving him full power to 
enlist men and to commission officers. He experienced 
no difficulties in securing volunteers, proving himself a 
capable recruiting officer. Assembling his forces at 
Bethlehem, he appointed his son, who had seen service 
as an officer in the army raised against Canada, as 
his aide-de-camp. It was the beginning of January, 
1756, when Franklin began active operations in the 
defense of the frontier. He divided the force under 
him into three divisions. One detachment was sent to 
the Minisink region with instructions to build a fort 
for the protection of the upper part of the country; 
and another was sent to the lower part with similar 
instructions. With the remainder of the force, Frank- 
lin determined to go to Gnadenhiitten, where a fort 
was thought more immediately nece&sary. The Mo- 
ravians at Bethlehem furnished him with the wagons 
necessary to transport tools, stores and baggage. All 
preparations had now been completed to begin the 
march into the wilderness. Just before leaving Beth- 
lehem, eleven farmers, who had been driven from their 
homes by the Indians, appealed to Franklin for fire- 
arms that they might return to their farms to bring 
away their cattle, which, in their precipitate flight they 
had left behind. 

On January 15, Colonel Franklin, for that was then 
his title, broke camp at Bethlehem and started his little 
army on the march to Gnadenhiitten, the distance to 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 53 

be covered being thirty-one miles. The force had not 
proceeded many miles when the rain began falling, 
and they were thoroughly drenched. On the way, the 
men were met by one of the eleven farmers already re- 
ferred to, who conveyed to them the melancholy in- 
telligence that they had been attacked by Indians, and 
that all save himself had been killed. The guns with 
which the farmers had been provided, while not differ- 
ing from those that were carried by the soldiers, were 
of the most ordinary sort, and the priming having be- 
come wet, could not be discharged. Hence the ten men 
fell easy victims to the Indians, who were better 
equipped in this respect than the farmers were. But 
a few miles were traversed the first day, the roads 
being in jjoor condition, and the wagons heavy. 

Franklin was especially concerned for the safety of 
his men while passing through Lehigh Gap, where he 
feared the Indians might be lying in wait to attempt 
an ambuscade. The fate that befell the ten luckless 
farmers because their weapons proved useless when 
put to the test, was not calculated to inspire a feeling 
of security, since he knew that the guns with which his 
soldiers were armed, being unprotected from the rain, 
would probably behave in like manner, should the oc- 
casion to use them at that time arise. The little army 
passed through the gap unmolested, however, reaching 
the home of Nicholas Uplinger at nightfall. The force 
had been augmented by the accession of fifty men 
under Captain Wayne on the way. The men were 
quartered for the night in Uplinger 's barn. 

In the morning the march to Gnadenhiitten was re- 
sumed, but only a few miles were covered when rain 
again began to fall. There being no shelter to look 
forward to at the destination of the march, and the 
soldiers being unprovided with great coats to protect 



54 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

them from the elements, it was deemed advisable to 
face about and return to the quarters of the previous 
night for shelter. The next day being Sunday, the 
march was resumed, and New Gnadenhiitten was 
reached at about two o'clock in the afternoon. Before 
dark the camp had been enclosed with a musket-proof 
breastwork, and with boards which had been ordered 
sent in advance from a saw-mill which stood where 
Slatington now is. The following day was so gloomy 
and foggy that it was determined no work should be 
done. A temporary defense having been provided, the 
next duty to be performed was to give proper Imrial 
to the bodies of the victims of the massacre at Gnad- 
enhiitten, these having been but partially interred in 
the first instance. On Tuesday morning the ground on 
which the fort was to be erected was decided upon, 
and the men began work with a will. Seventy axe-men 
dexterously felled enough trees in several hours for 
the purpose in hand. The fort was one hundred and 
twenty-five feet long, and fifty feet wide. First a 
trench on all four sides was dug to the depth of three 
feet. Then palisades or timbers eighteen feet in 
length and about a foot in diameter, being pointed at 
the top, were placed vertically in the trench until the 
enclosure was complete, forming what is known as a 
stockade. Each tree, when cut in lengths made three 
palisades. When the stockade had been completed, a 
floor or platform of boards was built all around within 
at a height of about six feet from the ground, the plan 
being for the men to stand on this when firing through 
the loop-holes, which occurred at regular intervals in 
the walls. 

As was almost invariably the case in the construc- 
tion of forts of this nature, a number of block-houses, 
pierced with loop-holes, were erected within the en- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 55 

closed space. These were intended to be occupied as 
quarters by the soldiers and the refugee settlers. A 
well sixteen feet deep and four in diameter, walled 
with stones taken from the river, was dug for the use 
of the garrison. 

The fort was finished on Saturday morning, less 
than a week having been required for its erection, 
notwithstanding that the progress of the work was 
greatly hindered by rain. The flag was then hoisted, 
followed by a general discharge of the rifles of the sol- 
diers, together with two swivel guns, constituting all 
the artillery of the fort. The cannon were fired for 
the purpose of overawing the Indians, should there be 
any close by. The defense was named Fort Allen in 
honor of Judge William Allen, father of James Allen, 
who in 1762 laid out Ailentown. 

''This kind of fort," says Franklin in his auto- 
biography, "however contemptible, is a sufficient de- 
fense against Indians, who have no cannon." 

Considering themselves now securely posted, and 
having a shelter to flee to, should the occasion de- 
mand, the men forming the garrison ventured out in 
parties to scour the surrounding country for Indians. 
They failed to encounter any; but evidences were not 
lacking that the wily denizens of the forests had been 
interested spectators of the activities of the garrison. 

It being winter, and the weather being inclement, a 
fire was of course necessary for the comfort of the 
Indians as they watched the progress of the work at 
the fort. An ordinary fire, kindled on the surface of 
the ground, would by its light and smoke have dis- 
closed their presence at a distance. They, therefore, 
dug holes of about three feet in diameter in the ground, 
sinking them to the depth of perhaps four feet. Em- 
ploying their hatchets they then cut off the charcoal 



56 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

from the sides of burnt logs lying in the woods. With 
these coals they made small fires in the bottom of the 
holes, and the soldiers observed among the weeds and 
grass the prints of their bodies, made by their lying 
on the ground while their legs and feet dangled over 
the fire, it being an essential point with an Indian to 
keep the lower extremities warm. 

Franklin was compelled to admire the shrewdness 
of the Indians in thus managing their fires that they 
might not be discovered, either by their light, flames, 
sparks, or even smoke. It appeared that their number 
had not been great, and evidently appreciating the dis- 
advantage of their situation, did not venture an at- 
tack. 

Franklin's next concern was to get the fort well 
stored with provisions and ammunition. 

This done, he received a letter from Governor Morris, 
apprising him of the fact that he had called the As- 
sembly, and that he desired his presence in Philadel- 
phia, if the posture of affairs on the frontier was such 
that he felt warranted in leaving. The other two forts, 
which the separate detachments of his command had 
been ordered to build, were now completed, and the 
settlers of the region feeling reasonably secure in the 
protection they afforded, he resolved to return to civ- 
ilization, the more willingly, as he tells us, since Colo- 
nel Clapham, an officer experienced in Indian warfare, 
and who was a visitor at the fort, consented tempor- 
arily to accept the command. 

Franklin gave this officer a commission, and, parad- 
ing the garrison, had it read to them. He assured the 
soldiers that the Colonel, who was a New Englander, 
was better qualified, owing to his military experience, 
to command them than himself. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 57 

Delivering a short address of farewell and of exhor- 
tation, he then took his leave, being accompanied by 
an armed escort as far as Bethlehem, where he rested 
a few days to recover from the hardships which he 
had undergone. Just nineteen days had elapsed since 
he, with his little army, had broken camp at Bethle- 
hem for the march into the wilderness ; but during that 
brief interval a defenseless frontier, which had been 
almost entirely deserted by the settlers, was converted 
into a defensible one. This change had been brought 
about largely through the energies and good sense of 
one man, whose services in this respect were later over- 
shadowed by his more eminent achievements in civil 
life. Once more the people could breathe freely, 
though the danger had not fully passed, and it was not 
until the close of the Revolutionary War that the peo- 
ple felt themselves secure from Indian attacks. Fort 
Allen was garrisoned for five years from the date of 
its erection, and was occasionally occupied by soldiers 
after the expiration of that time. Some of the com- 
panies stationed at the fort during its earlier history, 
and during the period of greatest danger, served with- 
out pay, besides furnishing their own arms and am- 
munition. 

Later, however, the soldiers who garrisoned the 
forts along the Blue Ridge were provincial troops, 
which, almost without exception, were details from the 
First Battalion, Pennsylvania Regiment, commanded 
by Lieutenant-Colonel Conrad Weisser, a gallant and 
energetic officer, who for many years played a promi- 
nent part in various capacities in the Indian affairs of 
the province. 

A marked change had now taken place in the com- 
position of the assembly of Pennsylvania. In the face 
of earnest opposition on the part of the Friends, that 



58 HISTORY or CARBON COUNTY. 

body had enacted legislation providing for the pay- 
ment of bounties on Indian scalps. Indians were em- 
ployed to fight Indians ; and the cruelty of the savage 
was stimulated by the promise of reward. In response 
to this cold invitation to murder, a number of scalping 
parties penetrated the Indian country early in 1756. 
One of these bands was from New Jersey, and num- 
bered one hundred men. 

Soon after the inauguration of this policy by the 
province, Governor Morris opened negotiations with 
the Indians with a view to putting an end to the strife, 
if possible. In pursuance of this object he issued a 
proclamation ordering a cessation of hostilities, and 
recalling the scalping parties. 

Further efforts finally effected a meeting between 
the Governor and Teedyuscung, the Delaware chief, at 
Easton, about the middle of July. This was the first 
appearance in the settlements of Teedyuscung since 
he had taken up the hatchet against the whites. Ac- 
companied by about thirty Indians, men, women, and 
children, he stopped at Fort Allen on his way to the 
conference. It was on this occasion that he first pro- 
claimed his kingship. We are told that at this, and 
succeeding conferences that were held, Teedyuscung 
stood up as the champion of his people, fearlessly de- 
manding restitution of their lands, or an equivalent 
for their irreparable loss, and in addition, the free 
exercise of the right to select, within the territory in 
dispute, a permanent home. 

The chieftain's imposing presence, his earnestness 
of appeal, and his impassioned oratory, as he plead 
the cause of the long-injured Lenape, evoked the ad- 
miration of his enemies themselves. 

He always spoke in the euphonious Delaware, 
although he was conversant with the white man's 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 59 

speech. It would almost appear from the records of 
these gatherings, that the whites artfully attempted to 
evade the points at issue, and to conciliate the indig- 
nant chieftain with fair speeches and uncertain prom- 
ises. The hollowness of the former he boldly exposed, 
and the latter be scornfully rejected; so that it was 
soon perceived that the Indian king was as astute and 
sagacious as he was immovable in the justice of his 
righteous demands. This conviction forced itself upon 
his hearers, and they yielded to the terms he laid down. 
In return the Indians were pledged first to release all 
the white prisoners they held. 

Having been given presents, the chief departed to 
arrange for the carrying out of his part of the pro- 
gram. All his movements, however, were so dilatory 
as to cause grave suspicion with regard to his sin- 
cerity of purpose. He loitered about the frontiers, 
went away, and came back again. 

Finally, in the early part of Augu&t, he re-appeared 
at Fort Allen, where the lieutenant in command kept 
plying him with rum until he was in no condition to 
move away, much to the detriment and disgrace of the 
jirovince. The officer who was in supreme command of 
the fort at this time was Captain Reynolds, but he 
being absent, a subordinate was temporarily in charge. 
The rum which he su]:»plied to Teedyuscung was em- 
bezzled from the public stores, and was sold to the 
chief. When the Delaware king came to the fort he 
brought with him sixteen deer skins, which he pro- 
posed sending to Governor Morris as a present, and 
out of which to make himself a pair of gloves. The 
lieutenant ridiculed Teedyuscung for this, and told 
him that one skin would be sufficient to make all the 
gloves that the governor would need. The king re- 
plied that this was the way the Indian spoke to show 



60 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

his generosity. However, the corrupt lieutenant gam- 
bled all but one of the skins away from the chief be- 
fore his departure. 

It is not surprising to learn that under such a leader 
a mutiny occurred at the fort before the return of 
Captain Reynolds. 

It appears that a number of the soldiers had im- 
bibed too freely of rum, and grew insubordinate. 
Christian Weyrick, a corporal, was the chief offender. 
He had a bodily encounter with his superior officer, 
and later quarreled with the Indians who were at the 
fort, threatening to drive them out. 

Both the corporal and the lieutenant were placed 
under arrest and lodged in jail at Easton for their mis- 
conduct. 

Captain Jacob Arndt was placed in command of the 
fort soon after this incident. 

Early in July, 1757, Teedyuscung was again quar- 
tered at Fort Allen, being enroute between the Sus- 
quehanna and the Delaware for the purpose of attend- 
ing another conference with the governor. 

On this occasion he was accompanied by two hun- 
dred Indians of all ages and both sexes. Upon his 
arrival he informed the commandant that he expected 
to stay five or six days, when he would be joined by 
about one hundred Senecas. 

In the Spring of 1758 Teedyuscung removed to 
Wyoming, where, agreeably to his request and the con- 
ditions of treaty, a town had been built for him and 
his followers by the province, in the beautiful valley 
of the Susquehanna. Thus happily situated after so 
many vicissitudes, he looked forward to the time when 
he should be enabled to wipe out the blot which had 
tarnished the escutcheon of the immemorial Lenape 
ever since the Six Nations had insidiously made 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 61 

women of them, years before. But his dreams were 
destined not to be realized ; for here he was burned to 
death on the night of the nineteenth of April, 1763, 
while asleep in his lodge. 

It is said that the Iroquois were the instigators of 
this wicked deed, for they hated the man who testified 
against their arrogant assumption, and who opposed 
their lust of power. As long as he lived, therefore, he 
was a standing rebuke to their designing oppression, 
and although they no longer dreaded his arms, they 
feared his words, which left their guilty consciences 
no peace. Hence it was resolved in council that he 
ought not to live ; and when the news was brought back 
to Onondaga that the Delaware king was no more, and 
that the lodges of the warriors had ascended in smoke, 
the treacherous Six Nations exultantly celebrated 
their triumph in having destroyed an enemy whose 
brave spirit they had despaired of subduing. 



CHAPTER V. 

CAPTIVITY OF THE GILBEBT FAMILY. 

The memory of the horrors and barbarities which 
attended the Indian uprising of 1755 lingered long in 
the minds of the settlers and their families. Notwith- 
standing that the Blue mountain frontier was rendered 
as safe as forts and garrisons could make it, only the 
most obstinate and adventurous of the pioneers re- 
turned to their clearings after the first violence of 
the storm had subsided. Even ten years after the 
massacre of Gnadenhiitten only a handful of white 
people lived in what is now Carbon county, and almost 
a generation passed away before the ring of the axe 
was again heard in the forests, and the curling smoke 
wreaths ascended from the chimneys of the log cabins 
of Towamensing, as this whole region was then known. 

Among those whom the feeling of returning security 
lured across the Blue Ridge was Benjamin Gilbert, a 
peaceful Quaker, who, in 1775, located in the Ma- 
honing Valley, a few miles from the spot where the 
Moravians had thirty years earlier planted their ill- 
fated mission. He came from Byberry, near Phila- 
delphia, and was married to his second wife, who had 
been the widow of Bryan Peart. Their united families 
of children made a large household. The Dodsons 
and a number of other families lived in the same neigh- 
borhood. Gilbert erected a log dwelling house and 
barns, a saw and grist mill, and for five years all went 
well; for the forest supply of timber was abundant, 
while Mahoning creek ran its strong full course un- 
checked by ice or drought. The mill-stones whirred 
cheerily all the year round, and the sharp, grating 

62 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 63 

mill saw played a joyous accompaniment. In an evil 
hour this scene of peace, contentment and prosperous 
toil was rudely broken by the stealthy and savage in- 
truder. On the morning of April 25, 1780, just a 
year after General Sullivan's expedition, the family 
was surprised by a party of eleven Indians, who took 
them all prisoners. The names and ages of the cap- 
tive^' were: Benjamin Gilbert, aged sixty-nine; Eliza- 
beth, his wife, fifty-five ; Joseph Gilbert, his son, forty- 
one; Jesse Gilbert, another son, nineteen; Sarah Gil- 
bert, wife of Jesse, nineteen; Eebecca Gilbert, a 
daughter, sixteen; Abner Gilbert, a son, fourteen; 
Elizabeth Gilbert, a daughter, twelve; Thomas Peart, 
a son of Benjamin Gilbert's wife, twenty-three; Benja- 
min Gilbert, a son of John Gilbert, of Philadelphia, 
eleven; Andrew Harrigar, employed by Gilbert, 
twenty-six; and Abigail Dodson, aged fourteen. The 
last named was a daughter of Samuel Dod&on, who 
lived on a farm nearly a mile away. She had come to 
the mill that morning with a grist. Having securely 
bound the prisoners, the Indians then proceeded to the 
dwelling of Benjamin Peart, about half a mile distant. 
There they made captive the head of the household, 
who was a young man of twenty-seven, his wife Eliza- 
beth, aged twenty, and their nine-months ' old child. 

A guard was placed over the prisoners while the 
Indians employed themselves in plundering their 
homes and packing up such goods as they chose to 
carry off. When they had secured all that their horses 
could carry, they loaded the remainder of their booty 
upon the backs of the distressed prisoners. Having 
finished their plundering, they began their retreat, 
first detaching two of their number to fire the buildings 
of the luckless captives. 



64 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

From a nearby eminence called Summer Hill, the 
prisoners had their last view of the spot where they 
had lived so prosperously and contentedly for five 
years, and as their glances lingered mournfully on the 
scene, the falling roofs of the buildings sent showers 
of sparks toward the heavens. 

The Indians were led by Rowland Monteur, a half- 
breed, whose father was a Mohawk, while his mother 
was a French woman. Five of the band were Senecas. 
They lost no time in pushing forward into the wilder- 
ness, evidently fearing pursuit and retribution. The 
route which they pursued led first to Mauch Chunk. 
A halt was called near the point where Flagstaff Park 
now is, and considering themselves comparatively se- 
cure, the Indians leisurely prepared a hearty meal, 
which they shared with the prisoners. Moccasins were 
then made for the children, after which they resumed 
their journey. Mauch Chunk creek was crossed and 
the climb of the hill on the opposite side begun. This 
the prisoners climbed with difficulty, and they were 
permitted to rest for a brief period at the foot of 
Mount Pisgah. The party then pressed on to the 
Nesquehoning creek, at the foot of the Broad mount- 
ain, where they halted for an hour. Here they struck 
the Warriors' Path, leading toward the Susquehanna. 
As the ascent of the Broad mountain was begun, Ben- 
jamin Gilbert's wife was greatly discouraged and 
fatigued, the unevenness and ruggedness of the path 
rendering the journey exceedingly toilsome. Being 
threatened with death by the Indians, however, she 
was compelled to move forward with the rest. After 
crossing Laurytown Valley, preparations were made to 
camp for the night. The Indians secured their pris- 
oners by felling a tree, in which notches were cut at 
regular intervals. Having placed their legs in these 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 65 

notches, a pole the length of the tree was placed on 
top. Across this, stakes were driven, after the manner 
of an old-fashioned rail fence, other poles or riders 
being placed in the crotches of the stakes, effectually 
confining the prisoners, with their backs to the ground. 
In addition to this, they tied a strip of rawhide about 
the neck of each of the captives, fastening one end to 
a tree. Hemlock branches strewed on the ground took 
the place of mattresses, while woolen blankets were 
provided for covers. In this unaccustomed manner 
the night was passed. 

Before resuming their march the next morning, the 
captors separated the prisoners into small companies, 
placing a particular Indian in command of each com- 
pany and spreading them to a considerable distance in 
order to render pursuit as impracticable as possible. 

Overcome with fatigue, the old people could not 
move as rapidly as their taskmasters desired, and they 
were forced to travel far beyond their strength under 
penalty of being tomahawked. As evening drew near, 
the parties again met and encamped. A deer having 
been killed, a fire was kindled, each one roasting pieces 
of flesh on sharpened sticks. 

The mode of confinement the second night was the 
same as before, but the prisoners submitted to it with 
greater resignation than on the night previous. The next 
morning again found them early on their way. During 
the day's journey thej^ passed near Fort Wyoming, 
situated on the eastern branch of the Susquehanna. 
The Indians observed every precaution as they ap- 
proached the garrison. Lest some slight noise might 
betray their presence, they carefully avoided treading 
on the twigs that were lying in the path, stepping from 
one stone to another, and requiring the captives to do 
likewise. 



66 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

On the morning of the fourth day of their captivity, 
the prisoners were all painted according to the usages 
of the Indians. Some were painted red and black, 
others red, and some pure black. Among those to 
whom the ebony hue was applied was the old man, 
Benjamin Gilbert. This was a fatal omen, indicating 
that he was considered of little value and was marked 
for death. Soon thereafter the Indiane essayed to 
kill him, but he was saved through the intercessions 
of his wife. On the fourth of May, Andrew Harrigar 
succeeded in making his escape. After a perilous jour- 
ney he returned in safety to civilization, bringing the 
first detailed news of the whole affair to the settle- 
ments. The prisoners who remained were treated with 
greater severity on account of his escape, and were ac- 
cused of having been privy to the design. 

For a time the Indians experienced no difficulty in 
procuring a plentiful supply of food. Deer, turkey, 
and fish were found in abundance, and at some of the 
Indian villages which had been deserted on the ap- 
proach of General Sullivan's army the year before, 
plenty of turnips and potatoes remained in the ground. 
The Indians were holding their course toward the 
Genesee river, and after the hunting grounds of north- 
ern Pennsylvania were passed, food became very 
scarce, and some of the prisoners were well nigh fam- 
ished. In this extremity all were compelled to depend 
on wild onions and a species of root, somewhat re- 
sembling the potato, which the Indians called "whop- 
panies." Benjamin Gilbert failed rapidly on this diet 
and the Indian who had him in charge, highly irritated 
at his want of strength, put a rope around his neck, 
leading him along with it. Fatigue at last overcame 
him, and he fell to the ground, when the heartless- 
savage pulled so hard on the rope that he was nearly 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 67 

choked to death. The Indian seemed determined to 
kill the aged man, but his life was again spared 
through the resolute entreaties of his wife. 

Some of the companies were at times far separated 
from the others, thus adding additional fear and un- 
certainty to their miserable lot. 

On their approach to the country of the Senecas, 
brought M'itli them cakes of hominy and Indian corn, 
abroad in search of provisions. Returning, they 
brought with them cakes of hominy and Indian corn. 
The prisoners were then put to work in the hot sun, 
pounding hominy, which, in their enfeebled condition 
was a hard task. This was then boiled and prepared 
for supper. The Indians sat down to eat first; when 
they had finished their meal, they wiped the spoons on 
the soles of their moccasins and then gave them to the 
captives, who were obliged to eat from them or go 
hungry. 

Subjected to such conditions, the forlorn band was 
dragged, goaded and driven over the rugged region 
of northern Pennsylvania, and through the swamps 
and rivers of the Genesee country toward an unknown 
destination. 

When food was plentiful, no attempt was made to 
lay by a portion toward the day of scarcity, the Indians 
being accustomed to gormandize when tlie opportunity 
offered, and to go hungry for a long period without 
repining when nothing to eat could be found. This 
mode of life, however, was foreign to their prisoners, 
which, together with their unaccustomed hardships 
and sufferings wore them to the bone. 

On the twenty-third of May, after a fearful and ad- 
venturous journey of twenty-nine days, the prisoners 
were brought into an Indian village not far from Fort 
Niagara. They were now called upon to encounter the 



68 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

dreadful ordeal of the gauntlet. They had been re- 
lieved of the heavy loads which they had heretofore 
been compelled to carry, and, had it not been for the 
treatment which they knew was in store for them, their 
situation would have been tolerable. The Indians 
entered the village whooping in the most frightful 
manner, and soon the squaws and children began to 
gather, hurling clubs and stones at the heads of the 
defenseless captives as they came, seeking revenge in 
this manner for friends and relations who had been 
slain. 

Two of the women who were on horseback were 
much bruised by falling from their mounts, which were 
frightened by the Indians. Elizabeth, the mother, took 
refuge by the side of a warrior, who, upon observing 
that she met with some favor on his account, sent her 
away; she then received several violent blows, and 
was almost disabled. 

The blood trickled from their heads in streams, and 
at the sight of this the Indian women and children 
redoubled their cries and the fury of their onslaught. 
The warriors did not take part in this brutal affair, 
except by looking on and encouraging the demonical 
sport. 

The hair of the prisoners was close cropt, while their 
clothes, as may easily be imagined, were in rags. 
The piteous spectacle which they presented at length 
moved the Indian king to put a stop to further cruelty, 
telling his people that the punishment which had al- 
ready been meted out was ^'sufficient." 

These preliminaries having been carried out, as pre- 
scribed by custom, the prisoners were given something 
to eat, the women of the party in particular being 
treated with kindness. 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 69 

Two English officers from Fort Niagara, Captains 
Dace and Powell, came to see the prisoners, and in- 
formed them that they would exercise their good offices 
to prevent them from suffering any further abuse. 

Soon after this a severe trial awaited the captives. 
Against their tearful and unavailing protests they 
were separated from each other. Some were given 
over to the Indians to be adopted, others were hired 
out by their Indian owners to white families^ and 
others were sent by way of Lake Ontario down the St. 
Lawrence river to Montreal as prisoners of war. 
Among the latter was the venerable Benjamin Gil- 
bert. He had been greatly indisposed before leaving 
Fort Niagara, and his distress was increased by a 
rain which fell on their passage, as they were without 
any covering. They passed Oswagatchy, an English 
garrison by the side of the St. Lawrence, but were not 
permitted to stop here; the rain continuing as they 
proceeded down the river, they landed on an island 
in order to secure themselves from the weather. A 
shelter was made for Benjamin Gilbert, but the rain 
ceasing to fall after a time, he was again placed in 
the boat, where he might be more at ease. The aged 
man was, however, broken in body and mind, and he 
sank rapidly under the complications of woe and hard- 
ship. He died on the evening of the eighth of June, 
1780, his faithful wife and two children being by his 
side. In the morning the party passed Fort Coeur de 
Lac, and waited for a considerable time some distance 
below while arrangements were being made for the 
burial of the body of the imfortunate Quaker. The 
remains were placed in a coffin and hastily interred 
under the wide-spreading branches of an oak, not far 
from the fort. The boatmen, an unfeeling company of 
four Frenchmen, would not allow his widow to pay the 



70 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

last tribute to his memory, and regardless of her piti- 
able plight, refused to wait. 

The last nine miles of the journey to Montreal were 
made by land. The women were allowed to ride in an 
empty cart, which was on the way to the to\\Ti. 

Arriving at Montreal, the prisoners received kind 
treatment at the hands of the officers in command of 
the garrison there. 

A concise account of the privations and sufferings 
which the family had undergone was taken down and 
forwarded to General Haldimand at Quebec, Avho 
issued orders that those who were held in captivity at 
Niagara should be released, with particular injunc- 
tions for every garrison to furnish them with neces- 
saries on their way down the St. Lawrence to Mon- 
treal. To carry out these orders, however, required 
a great deal of time, and those of the family who had 
been adopted by the Indians fared miserably before 
they were released. 

Joseph Gilbert, in particular, found the Indian man- 
ner of life disagreeable. The band which held him 
captive improvidently consumed their stock of pro- 
visions in indulging their voracious appetites, and a 
famine ensued. They were obliged to have recourse 
to herbs and roots, and during a time of especial 
scarcity they lived upon the carcass of a dead horse 
which had been found lying in the woods. He finally 
escaped, but his strength had been so greatly reduced 
that he made his way to Fort Niagara with extreme 
difficulty. ^ %f*jWl^ 

After many sore trials and vicissitudes, all of the 
during the period of her captivity. 

After many sore trials and vicissitudes, all of the 
captives, excepting Benjamin Gilbert and Abigail Dod- 
son, were happily reunited at Montreal. Leaving there 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 71 

on the twenty-second of August, 1782, tliey reached 
their old home at Byberry in safety, two years and five 
months having elapsed since they had been rudely 
driven forth into the wilderness by the Indians. 

In 1785, Thomas Dodson, a cousin of Abigail, deter- 
mined to go northward into the Indian country to make 
a search for the missing girl. 

After many wanderings his diligence and faith were 
rewarded. He found her in the Genesee Valley with 
the tribe of Indians by which she had been adopted. 
It appeared that her return at some time had been 
anticipated by the Indians, they having decided that 
if any of her friends ever came for her she should be 
allowed to go. 

When Thomas Dodson arrived, the chief of the tribe 
was absent, and the family of which she was a mem- 
ber, although loath to part with her, for they had 
learned to love her, consented, and preparations were 
made for her departure. A new suit of Indian gar- 
ments, ornamented with beads, was made for her, and 
feasts were given in her honor, at which many gath- 
ered. When all was ready, with many fond farewells, 
the pair started. The young man had left his horse at 
a settlement, a few miles away, and upon reaching the 
place and applying for his property, the man in whose 
care the horse had been left refused to give him up, 
except upon the payment of one hundred dollars Dod- 
son did not have that much money, and was obliged to 
leave the horse behind. He succeeded, however, in 
making arrangements whereby they were taken to To- 
wanda, and from that point they floated down the Sus- 
quehanna to Salem in a canoe. There a horse was 
secured from a man named Nathan Beach, and they 
proceeded on their way to the Mahoning Valley, where 
they arrived in October, 1786. 



72 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Abigail had been absent from home for five years 
and six montlis; she had lived with several different 
tribes, and had learned their languages. As she ap- 
proached the familiar dwelling of her childhood, she 
went alone to the door. Her mother opened in re- 
sponse to her knock, and then, turning to the girl's 
father, said: "Here is a squaw, and a pretty good- 
looking one, too." Neither of the parents recognized 
their child, whereupon she exclaimed, ''Mother, don't 
you know me ! ' ' Her rescuer entered the house at this 
moment, and bewilderment gave place to unbounded 
joy as the father and mother beheld in the comely 
squaw their own long-lost daughter. 



CHAPTER VI. 

FABLY ANNALS OF ANTHEACITE COAL. 

The Indians who inhabited eastern Pennsylvania 
knew of the existence of anthracite coal in various 
localities of that section long before this valuable min- 
eral, which is now one of our leading natural products, 
was discovered by the white settlers. 

That the ''black stones," as coal was commonly 
termed a century ago, were capable of combustion and 
of generating heat was not known to the aborigines. 
Had they been familiar with the properties of coal 
and the use to which it may be put, they would have 
carefully guarded the secret of its presence or loca- 
tion. To have pursued any other course, as experi- 
ence had taught them, would have been equivalent to 
an invitation to have their lands trespassed upon or 
taken away from them by the whites. 

Loskiel, the Moravian historian, in speaking of the 
settlement of Gnadenhiitten, relates that the Indians 
of the vicinity made their pipe-heads of a soft black 
stone, which was undoubtedly coal. 

The Connecticut pioneers of the Wyoming Valley 
were the first to learn of the existence of coal in that 
portion of the region, while its presence was early 
suspected on the headwaters of the Schuylkill. 

Coal, in the Lehigh region, was discovered on Sharp 
mountain, where Summit Hill now stands, in the year 
1791, by Philip Ginter. 

This discovery, like so many others which have been 
fraught with great import to humanity, was purely 
an accidental one, and it eventually led to a true ap- 
preciation of the value of the mineral on the part of 

73 



74 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

the general public, and to its being mined and placed 
on the market. The element of romance attaches 
strongly to the story of Ginter and his epoch-making 
discovery. He was a hunter, and on locating among 
the rugged mountains of the upper Lehigh, he built a 
rough cabin in the forest, depending solely on the pro- 
ceeds of his rifle for the support of himself and family. 
The game he shot, including bear and deer, he carried 
to the nearest store and bartered for the other neces- 
saries of life. 

On the eventful day of his finding coal, he was mak- 
ing his way over Sharp mountain in a despondent 
frame of mind. The family larder was bare, and his 
search for game had been entirely unsuccessful. With 
a drizzling rain beginning to fall, and the shades of 
night forming about him, he bent his course homeward. 
Suddenly he stumbled over an object which, by the im- 
pact of his foot was driven before him; there was 
enough light remaining for him to distinguish that the 
object was black, and as it was traditionary that coal 
existed in the vicinity, it occurred to him that this 
might be a portion of that "stone-coal" of which he 
had so often heard. 

Taking the specimen with him to his cabin, he carried 
it the next day to Colonel Jacob Weiss, who lived at 
what was then known as Fort Allen, now Weissport. 

Taking a keen interest in the matter, Colonel Weiss 
immediately took the specimen with him to Philadel- 
phia, submitting it for inspection to John Nicholson, 
Michael Hillegas and Charles Cist, the last-named 
being an intelligent printer, who ascertained its na- 
ture and properties, authorizing the colonel to satisfy 
Ginter for his discovery upon his pointing out the exact 
spot where the coal was found. 



HISTOE^ OF CARBON COUNTY. 75 

Ginter readily agreed to this proposal, accepting in 
exchange the title to a small tract of land, upon which 
he afterwards built a mill, and of which he was unhap- 
pily deprived by the claims of a prior survey. 

In the beginning of the year 1793, Hillegas, Cist, 
Weiss and others formed the Lehigh Coal Mine Com- 
pany, but without being incorporated. They pur- 
chased from Jacob Weiss the tract of land upon which 
Summit Hill is now situated, afterward taking up, 
under warrants from the commonwealth, about ten 
thousand acres, embracing most of the coal lands now 
owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. 

Coal was found in unmistakable quantity at the point 
of Ginter 's discovery, and all that remained necessary 
to the most triumphant success was a market and the 
facilities of transportation. But here was the great 
difficulty. The public knew nothing about the new 
fuel; wood was then plentiful and low-priced, while 
there was a total lack of highways or navigable streams 
leading to the region. Small quantities of coal were 
mined, but people were slow to appreciate its value, 
and it required vigorous exertions to induce them to 
attempt to use it. Its very appearance was against it, 
and the majority of persons approached were entirely 
incredulous as to its being anything else than a stone, 
incapable of being burned by any inherent qualities it 
possessed. Not only the coal but the fact that it was 
coal had to be discovered. Even as late as the year 
1812, when it was sought to secure an act authorizing 
the improvement of the Schuylkill river in order to 
convey coal to Philadelphia, the representative of 
Schuylkill county in the state senate declared there 
was no coal in his district; that there was a kind of 
black stone that was called coal, but that it would not 
burn ! 



76 HTSTORi: OF CARBON COUNTY. 

The Lehigh Coal Mine Company expended the sum 
of ten pounds in Pennsylvania currency on the con- 
struction of a road from the mines to the Lehigh, a 
distance of nine miles. 

After many fruitless attempts to get coal to market 
over this nominal road, and by way of the river, which, 
in seasons of low water, in its unimproved state, de- 
fied the floating of a canoe over its rocky bed, and after 
calling for money from its stockholders until calling 
was useless, the company became tired of the experi- 
ment, suffering its j^roperty to lie idle for several 
years. 

Notwithstanding the inauspicious circumstances 
which involved the company. Colonel AVeiss deter- 
mined that the coal should, at least, be introduced to 
the acquaintance of the public. Filling his saddle bags 
from time to time, he rode around among the black- 
smiths of the lower country, earnestly soliciting them 
to try it. A few accepted the proffered supplies, using 
the coal with partial success. 

In the year 1806, William Turnbull had an ark con- 
structed at the mouth of the Nesquehoning creek which 
took to Philadelphia about three hundred bushels of 
coal. A portion of this cargo was sold to the managers 
of the water works, located in Center Square, where 
the city hall now stands. Upon trial there, it was 
deemed rather an extinguisher of fire than anything 
else, was rejected as worthless, and was broken up 
to be spread on the walks of the surrounding garden 
in place of gravel. 

The company, anxious to have its property brought 
to notice and developed, leased its mines to different 
individuals in succession for varying periods of years, 
finally adding the privilege of taking timber from its 
lands for the purpose of floating coal to market. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 77 

During the war of 1812, bituminous coal became very 
scarce and high-priced. At this time Jacob Cist, 
Charles Miner and John Robinson held the lease of the 
mines on the Lehigh, and taking advantage of the fa- 
vorable opportunity offered, made a valiant attempt 
to bring anthracite into general use in Philadelphia. 

They succeeded in getting several arks to their des- 
tination in safety, while others were wrecked upon the 
rocks which obstructed the channel of the Lehigh. 
The coal was sold for twenty-one dollars a ton, but 
even that high price was insufficient to fully defray 
the cost of mining and transportation. 

The return of peace found these men in the midst of 
their enterprise, and with the return of normal condi- 
tions they were compelled to abandon it because of 
their inability to compete successfully with the pro- 
ducers of bituminous coal. 

Soon after this failure, Josiah White and Erskine 
Hazard, who were engaged in the manufacture of wire 
at the Falls of Schuylkill, having obtained good re- 
sults in their experiments with the coal they had pur- 
chased from Cist, Miner and Robinson, secured control 
of the entire property of the Lehigh Coal Mine Com- 
pany under the terms of a lease for twenty years. 
George F. A. Hanto joined them in the venture, and 
was largely depended upon to secure the necessary 
financial assistance to make the property jDroductive. 
Under the conditions of the lease, it was stipulated 
that, after a given time for preparation, they should 
deliver for their own benefit at least forty thousand 
bushels of coal annually in Philadelphia and the sur- 
rounding districts, and should pay, if demanded, one 
ear of corn as a yearly rental. 

After these preliminaries, the next step necessary 
was to procure an act for the improvement of the Le- 



78 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

high river; on this project the various parties previ- 
ously operating the mines had expended many thou- 
sands of dollars under successive acts of the legisla- 
ture. 

During the month of April, 1818, White and Hazard 
surveyed the river from Stoddartsville, above White 
Haven, to Easton, using instruments which they had 
borrowed from the Delaware and Schuylkill Canal 
Company, there being no others to be found in Phila- 
delphia at that time. 

Following this, these enterprising pioneers began 
to solicit stock subscriptions for the purpose of raising 
the capital needed to carry forward the work they 
were about to begin. 

In view of the disastrous termination of all previous 
attempts to put the property on a paying basis, the 
project was generally viewed as chimerical, and they 
encountered many difficulties and discouragements. 
The leading capitalitsts of the day were appealed to, 
among the number being Stephen Girard, who replied 
laconically that he formed no partnerships. 

Joseph Bonaparte, in a reply by letter through his 
secretary, respectfully declined joining in the enter- 
prise. 

One confessed, after being polite enough to listen 
to the promoters, that he was unable to appreciate 
their remarks; another agreed to give them a hearing 
on the subject for five minutes by the watch. Still 
another appointed an evening for a conference, but, 
when called upon, had gone to a party. 

Finally, some were found who were willing to join 
in the improvement of the river, but had no faith in 
the value of the coal. Others were of the opinion that 
the river improvements would never pay the interest 
of their cost, while the coal business would prove 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 79 

profitable. This diversity of opinion gave rise to a 
separation of the two interests. 

On August 10, 1818, the Lehigh Navigation Com- 
pany was formed, and two months later the Lehigh 
Coal Company was organized. Their combined capital 
stock amounted to two hundred thousand dollars, and 
White, Hazard and Hanto were the dominant figures 
in both companies. Hanto was soon found to be an im- 
postor, however, and after some difficulty, together 
with a heavy pecuniary sacrifice on the part of the 
other two, he was, during the spring of 1820, elim- 
inated. Immediately thereafter the two companies 
were merged, under the title of the Lehigh Coal and 
Navigation Company. It was not until February 13, 
1822, that a charter was secured. 

The improvement of the Lehigh was begun at the 
mouth of the Nesquehoning creek, during the summer 
of the year 1818, under the personal supervision of 
Josiah White. The plan adopted was to contract the 
channel of the river in the form of a funnel, wherever 
it was found necessary to raise the water, throwing 
up the round river-stones into low walls or wing dams, 
thus providing a regular descending navigation. 

But it soon became apparent that the carrying out 
of this plan would not insure sufficient water in seasons 
of drought to float a loaded ark or boat, and the success 
of the whole enterprise hung in the balance. 

In this contingency, Josiah White, who was a man 
of great resourcefulness and mechanical ingenuity, 
resorted to the expedient of creating artificial freshets. 
Dams were constructed in the neighborhood of Mauch 
Chunk, in which were placed sluice-gates of peculiar 
design, invented for the purpose by White, and by 
means of which water could be retained until required 
for use. When the dam became full and the water 



80 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

had run over it long enough for the river below to 
regain its ordinary depth, the sluice-gates were let 
down, while the boats, which were lying in the pool 
above, passed down with the artificial flood. In this 
manner the difficulty was overcome. 

While the work of improving the river was going 
forward a wagon road was also being built from 
Mauch Chunk to the mines at Summit Hill, and the 
promoters of the undertaking had at their command 
the largest force of men that had until that time been 
engaged in a private enterprise in the wilderness of 
Pennsylvania. 

The line of this road had been surveyed in 1818 
by White and Hazard, and is believed to have been the 
first ever laid out by an instrument, on the principle 
of dividing the whole descent into the whole distance, 
as regularly as the ground would admit of, and having 
no undulation. A pair of horses could haul from four 
to six tons of coal upon it with ease. 

While the descending navigation of the Lehigh was 
not perfected until 1823, three hundred and sixty-five 
tons of coal was sent to Philadelphia in 1820. This 
quantity stocked the market, and was disposed of with 
great difficulty. The price asked therefor was eight 
dollars and forty cents a ton. Two years after this 
the Schuylkill region was opened, while it was not 
until 1829 that the coal trade of the Wyoming region 
began. 

In 1821, one thousand and seventy-three tons were 
sent down the Lehigh, and in 1824 the quantity shipped 
by this route reached nine thousand five hundred and 
forty-one tons. This year marked the turning point 
in the use of anthracite coal. People were now be- 
coming accustomed to the new fuel, and prejudice 
against it was fast dying out. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 81 

During 1825, more than twenty-eight thousand tons 
of coal from the Lehigh reached Philadelphia, and the 
trade which has since reached such enormous propor- 
tions was firmly established. 

The coal at Summit Hill lay close to the surface, 
being simply quarried in the open until about 1844, 
when, owing to the dip of the veins, the uncovering 
became too expensive to be profitably conducted, and 
was, therefore, abandoned and underground work re- 
sorted to. 

The boats used during the early years on the Le- 
high consisted of square boxes, or arks, from sixteen 
to eighteen feet wide, and about twenty-five feet long. 
At first two of these were joined together by means 
of hinges, to permit of the undulations produced in 
passing the dams and sluices. As the men became 
more expert in their work and as the channel was 
straightened and improved, the number of sections 
was increased till, finally, their whole length reached 
one hundred and eighty feet. They were steered with 
long oars, like a raft. 

Boats of this description were used on the Lehigh 
to the end of the year 1831. During that year more 
than forty thousand tons of coal passed down the 
river, which required the building of so many boats 
that, had they all been joined in one length, they would 
have extended over a distance of more than thirteen 
miles. 

These boats made but one trip, being broken up in 
Philadelphia, where the planks were sold as lumber, 
while the iron work was returned to Mauch Chunk by 
land, a distance of eighty miles. 

The men employed in running the boats walked 
back for several years, when rough wagons were 
placed on the road for their accommodation by some of 
the tavern-keepers along the route. 



82 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

It soon became evident that the traffic could not be 
extended as fast as the demand for coal increased 
while it was necessary to build a new boat for each 
load of coal that was sent down; besides, the forests 
of the Laurytown Valley, where most of the lumber 
came from, were fast disappearing. Under these cir- 
cumstances, it became apparent that the time had ar- 
rived for the introduction of slackwater navigation on 
the Lehigh. 

Accordingly, in 1827, the building of the Lehigh 
Canal, extending from Mauch Chunk to Easton, a dis- 
tance of forty-six miles, was begun. The engineer in 
charge of the work was Canvass White, who had taken 
a prominent part in the construction of the Erie Canal 
across the state of New York. 

The canal was completed in 1829, costing about 
eight hundred thousand dollars. During the ensuing 
quarter of a century, or until the building of the Le- 
high Valley Railroad, it commanded all the traffic of 
the Lehigh region, in the development of which it was 
a vital factor. In 1838, under the supervision of E. A. 
Douglass, the canal was extended from Mauch Chunk 
to White Haven, from which point it was connected 
with Wilkes-Barre by railroad. 

From this time forth until 1862, when the upper 
section of the canal was destroyed by flood, never to 
be rebuilt, it carried a considerable portion of the out- 
put of the Wyoming coal field. 

During the latter part of 1827, the state began the 
construction of the canal along the Delaware, from 
Easton to Bristol. Its completion was delayed until 
1831, obliging the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- 
pany to continue the use of temporary boats, which, 
owing to their peculiar design, were very expensively 
moved on the canal, but were the only kind that could 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 83 

be used upon the channels of the Delaware, which were 
still necessary used to reach Philadelphia. This seri- 
ously impeded the development of the Lehigh region, 
and turned the attention of persons desirous of engag- 
ing in the coal industry to the Schuylkill field, causing 
Pottsville to spring up with great rapidity. In this 
manner the Schuylkill coal trade, thus early, out- 
stripped that of the Lehigh. 

During the summer of 1827, a railroad was built 
from the mines at Summit Hill to Mauch Chunk. With 
one or two unimportant exceptions, this was the first 
railroad in the United States. It was nine miles in 
length, and occupied the route of the old wagon road 
most of the distance. 

Summit Hill, lying nearly a thousand feet higher 
than Mauch Chunk, the cars on the road made this 
descent by gravity, passing the coal, at their destina- 
tion to the boats in the river by means of inclined 
planes and chutes. The whole of this plan was evolved 
by Josiah White, under whose direction it was con- 
summated in a period of about four months. The rails 
were of rolled bar-iron, three-eighths of an inch in 
thickness and an inch and a half in width, laid upon 
wooden ties, which were kept in place by means of 
stone ballast. 

The loaded cars or wagons, as they were then 
termed, each having a capacity of approximate!}" one 
and a half tons, were connected in trains of from six 
to fourteen, being attended by men who regulated their 
speed. 

Turn-outs were provided at intervals and the empty 
cars were drawn back to the mines by mules. They 
descended with the trains in specially constructed cars, 
affording a novel and rather ludicrous spectacle. 
Thirty minutes was the average time consumed in 



84 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

making the descent, while the weary trip back to the 
mines required three hours. 

The cost of transporting coal in this manner was 
trifling as compared with the old plan, and the saving 
thus effected benefited producer and consumer alike. 

In 1830, the Rhume Run Railroad, operated on the 
same principle as the other, and carrying the output of 
the Nesquehoning mines to Mauch Chunk, was begun. 

By the spring of 1844, the demand for coal had in- 
creased to such an extent that improved facilities were 
demanded for its transportation from Summit Hill to 
Mauch Chunk. The idea of a back track from the 
river to the mines, which had for years been contem- 
plated, was now put into execution, under the super- 
vision of E. A. Douglass. This required a piece of 
bold engineering. In carrying out the plan, a plane 
was constructed from the head of the chutes at Mauch 
Chunk to the summit of Mount Pisgah, about nine 
hundred feet above the level of the river. Up this 
ascent the cars were drawn by means of stationary 
engines, and thence allowed to run by gravity to the 
foot of Mount Jefferson, six miles distant. From this 
point they were raised to the top of the mountain, as 
in the previous instance, traversing the remainder of 
the distance to Summit Hill by gravity. The back 
track was completed in 1845. 

During the succeeding year, active operations were 
begun in the Panther Creek Valley. The coal produced 
by these mines was hoisted to Summit Hill on inclined 
places, similar to those of Mount Pisgah and Mount 
Jefferson. The use of a Y in the operation of the 
railroad in this valley gave rise to the term "switch- 
back," which designation has ever since been applied 
to the entire system. 

With the opening of the Nesquehoning Valley Rail- 
road, the Rhume Run gravity road was abandoned, 



HISTORY OF (JAKBON COUNTY. g5 

while the Switchback ceased to be used for coal carry- 
ing purposes. The latter is still maintained and is 
operated under lease during the summer months for 
the accommodation of sightseers. 

Great as has been the improvement in the facilities 
of transportation since the beginning of the coal trade, 
there has been a still greater improvement in the means 
and appliances employed in the mining of coal and in 
its preparation for shipment and use. 

The large body of coal at Summit Hill, lying near 
the surface, materially simplified production there 
during the early days, enabling teams to descend to the 
quarry for their load. 

In other localities, less favored, pits were sunk from 
which coal was hoisted in buckets by means of a com- 
mon windlass, operated by hand. Usually, at the 
depth of thirty or forty feet, the water became be- 
yond control, and the pit was abandoned and another 
sunk. 

A little later, the gin, operated by horse power, was 
introduced for hoisting both coal and water, effecting 
a decided improvement and correspondingly increas- 
ing the output. 

But the pit or shaft was soon abandoned in favor 
of the drift or tunnel from the foot of hills, thus se- 
curing gravity drainage, as well as the application of 
that principle in bringing out the coal. For some 
years the wheelbarrow was the means of conveyance 
from the mines. This gave way to the mule and the 
underground railroad, and the mule has now in many 
instances been superseded by the electric motor. 

The function formerly performed by the pick, wedge 
and hammer in cutting or loosening the coal now de- 
volves principally upon high explosives. The primi- 
tive breaker was a sledge in the hands of a brawny 
workman. 



86 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

A careful, intelligent supervision under state laws 
■S,nd legally selected officials was inaugurated years 
ago, and every mine in Pennsylvania is visited at 
stated intervals by the mine inspectors, whose famili- 
arity with mining in all its details renders them eli- 
gible for their important work. 

In addition to this, mine foremen and superintend- 
ents are required to undergo an examination as to 
their competency, and the proficiency of every miner 
must be legally attested. 

With all these precautionary measures, many acci- 
dents occur in this hazardous industry, and a trained 
hospital corps is employed to render ''first aid to the 
injured." 

For purposes of insx^ection, the state is divided into 
districts, to each of which one inspector is allotted. 
Carbon county forms the major portion of the Seven- 
teenth Anthracite District. 

Normally this district now produces about four mil- 
lion tons of coal annually, the largest individual opera- 
tor being the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, 
which is credited with approximately three-fourths 
of the output of the whole district. 

Since the beginning of the industry, the Lehigh 
region, which includes the mines of the Hazleton dis- 
trict, has shipped about three hundred million tons of 
coal to market. 

As is well known, practically all the anthracite coal 
in the United States is confined to an area of five hun- 
dred square miles in eastern Pennsylvania. The total 
output of the entire region thus far has been about 
two billion tons, and, according to the estimates of the 
Pennsylvania geological survey, at the present rate of 
production the coal beds will be exhausted in less than 
one hundred years. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ORGANIZATION OF TEE COUNTY. 

The great county of Northampton, which in the 
beginning extended westward from the Delaware to 
the Susquehanna, and northward to the state line of 
New York, was separated from Bucks, one of the three 
original counties of Pennsylvania, in 1752. 

Its territorial extent was nearly equal to that of the 
neighboring state of New Jersey. 

Lehigh county was set off from Northampton in 
1812; influenced by that act and the hardships under 
which they labored in being so far removed from 
Easton, the seat of justice, the people in the more 
northern portion of the valley began to agitate the 
project of forming another new county as soon as the 
termination of the second war with England allowed 
their thoughts to turn from military to civil affairs. 

Several abortive attempts were made in this direc- 
tion, and it was not until March 13, 1843, that the long- 
desired legislation, providing for the establishment of 
Carbon county, was secured and approved by the gov- 
ernor. 

As then constituted the county contained the town- 
ships of East Penn, Mahoning, Lausanne, Banks, Tow- 
amensing, Lower Towamensing and Penn Forest. 

All of its territory was taken from Northampton 
county, excepting Penn Forest, then including Kidder, 
which was carved from Monroe. The boundaries of 
the county still remain as established in 1843. 

John D. Bowman, Thomas Weiss, John Fatzinger, 
Abram Shortz and Samuel Wolf were the commis- 

87 



gg HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

sioners to whom Governor Porter assigned the delicate 
duty of choosing the county seat. 

Lehighton and Mauch Chunk were rival claimants 
for the honor, the latter being selected. 

The commissioners were to a certain extent actuated 
in their choice by the offer of the Lehigh Coal and 
Navigation Company to provide a suitable court house 
and jail at their own expense as a special inducement to 
the location of the seat of justice at Mauch Chunk. 
The old stone storehouse of the company, occupying 
the site of the present court house, served the first of 
these purposes, while a small structure in the rear was 
converted into a jail. These buildings and the ground 
upon which they stood were formally deeded to the 
county in 1846. 

In December, 1843, the first session of court was' 
held. Judge N. B. Eldred presiding, and Asa Packer 
and Jacob Dinkey sitting as associate justices. 

At this session, twelve lawyers were admitted to the 
bar of Carbon county. 

Neither the court house nor the jail were of fire- 
proof construction, and both were destroyed in the 
fire which devastated Mauch Chunk during the sum- 
mer of 1849. Fortunately the county records were 
saved. 

The jail was rebuilt during the succeeding year, but 
it was not until 1854 that the work of replacing the 
court house was completed. 

After about a dozen years the former was found to 
be inadequate, and in 1869 the jDresent prison of the 
county was begun. 

The court house finished in 1854 stood until 1893, 
when it was torn down preparatory to the erection of a 
more modern temple of justice. 




tf ^'^ 




The Old Coikt House at Maucii Ciilxk. 
Torn Down in 1893. 




(Jakbox ("oixtv CurKT HorsE, Maucij Cjiuxk. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 89 

The stone for this handsome building, which was 
completed in 1894 at a cost of about one hundred and 
twenty thousand dollars, was quarried at Rockport. 
Bonds to the value of seventy-five thousand dollars 
were issued toward defraying the expense involved in 
the construction of the building, and these have nearly 
all been redeemed. 

Excepting the apportionment of 1873, Carbon has 
always been associated with the mother county of 
Northampton in congressional affairs. 

In 1843 Carbon was made a part of the district 
which included Northampton, Monroe, Pike and 
Wayne counties. 

It so remained until 1861, when Wayne was dropped 
and Lehigh was added. One year later, however, the 
original grouping was restored. 

By the apportionment of 1873, Carbon was linked 
with Columbia, Montour, Monroe, Pike and portions 
of Luzerne and the present county of Lackawanna. 

Since 1887, Carbon, Northampton, Monroe and Pike 
have constituted what is now termed the Twenty- 
sixth Congressional District. 

For years Carbon and Lehigh were associated for 
legislative purposes. From 1874 to 1888 Carbon 
county alone was allotted two representatives in the 
assembly. In the latter year the allotment of the 
county was reduced to one. 

Schuylkill, Carbon, Monroe and Pike were consti- 
tuted one senatorial district in 1843. In 1864, Carbon, 
Monroe, Pike and Wayne counties formed the district. 
Ten years later Wayne county was dropped, only to be 
restored by the apportionment of 1906. 

Until 1851, judges were appointed by the governor, 
since which time they have been elected by the people 
in the manner provided for the election of other county 



90 HISTOKY OP CARBON COUNTY. 

or district offices. The county was in 1849 judicially 
linked with Monroe, Wayne and Pike. In 1874, this 
was changed to Carbon and Monroe, so remaining until 
1901, when Carbon was constituted an independent 
judicial district. 

TEE MIDDLE COAL FIELD POOR DISTRICT. 

Prior to the year 1856 indigent people in the county 
were taken care of by the districts in which they lived, 
the subjects of public charity being let out for care 
and protection to the lowest bidder. On April 26, 
1855, however, an act was passed by the legislature 
providing for a house of employment for Carbon 
county, and authorizing directors of the poor. 

This law was left to the acceptance or rejection of 
the people of the county, and, it being feared that the 
new plan would result in higher taxation, a number 
of the districts voted negatively on the measure. The 
election took place on October 9, 1855, and there were 
majorities in the affirmative from the boroughs of 
Mauch Chunk and Ea&t Mauch Chunk and the town- 
ships and Banks and Lausanne. The districts reject- 
ing the law preferred to continue to care for their un- 
fortunate ones in the old way, while the other districts, 
having accepted the law, proceeded to adopt measures 
for putting it into execution. 

Before the close of the year the newly-elected direct- 
ors took steps to establish the proposed institution at 
Laurytown, in what is now Lehigh township. The 
farms of D. J. Labar, John Toomey, and Jacob Cole, 
aggregating 315 acres, were purchased at a cost of 
$5,100. Other additions in acreage have been made 
from time to time. 

George Kline, J. H. Chapman and R. D. Stiles were 
elected the first poor directors, while they appointed 
Jesse K. Pryor as steward and his wife as matron. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 9X 

Temporary quarters were provided, pendAng the 
erection of a suitable building. This was completed 
and occupied during the summer of 1857, the cost being 
$8,273. There were fifty-four inmates at the institu- 
tion at that time. 

David Petrey and wife were appointed steward and 
matron, respectively, on November 1, 1857, and the af- 
fairs of the district were apparently well administered, 
because, while the number housed at the farm had 
risen to ninety-nine, in 1861, there was a balance in the 
treasury of $2,656. 

In 1862, a number of the poor districts of the lower 
end of Luzerne county signified a desire to unite with 
the districts in Carbon county which had accepted the 
law of 1855. After the preliminary steps had been 
taken, a bill authorizing this union was passed by the 
legislature, March 25, 1862. The district, as then or- 
ganized, was composed of the boroughs of Mauch 
Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, and the townships of 
Banks, Mauch Chunk and Lausanne, in Carbon county, 
and of the borough of Hazleton and the townships of 
Hazle and Foster, in Luzerne county. Later, the bor- 
oughs of Jeddo, West Hazleton and Freeland, of Lu- 
zerne county, were admitted to the district, while in 
Carbon county the boroughs of Weatherly, Beaver 
Meadows, Summit Hill and Lansford, and the town- 
ship of Lehigh have been added, the whole being known 
as the Middle Coal Field Poor District. 

Luzerne county had been organized as a poor dis- 
trict by Act of May 1, 1861, but the districts mentioned 
effected their union with those of Carbon county before 
any definite arrangements had been made for the build- 
ing of a poor house by the Luzerne county authorities. 

Commissioners were appointed to determinei, the 
amount that the incoming districts from Luzerne 



92' HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

county should pay the Carbon county district in ad- 
justing the iDroperty proportionately, and the sum of 
$4,500 was agreed upon. The accession of the Lu- 
zerne county districts made the building of an addition 
to the poor hou&e necessary. 

In the spring of 1871, a hospital, which had been 
built at a cost of $15,000 was opened for use, and this 
served the purpose for which it was intended until 
the erection of the present fine brick structure, which 
is valued at $40,000. 

The number of inmates kept at the almshouse often 
exceeds two hundred, while the district pays for the 
maintenance of about the same number at various state 
institutions for the insane. The real estate and per- 
sonal property owned by the district is valued at about 
$150,000. 

Of the seven hundred and eighty acres of land com- 
prising the farm, three hundred and fifty are under 
cultivation. The gross value of the produce of the 
farm averages about $10,000 annually. 

S. W. Gangwer, the present steward, was appointed 
in 1902. 

The feasibility of erecting a building capable of ac- 
commodating the insane of the district now kept at the 
almshouse and at the various state institutions has 
been seriously entertained for some years. During 
1910, after much wrangling as to the location of the 
proposed building, steps preliminary to its erection 
were taken by the directors; influences hostile to the 
idea, however, succeeded in halting the execution of 
the plan for the time being at least. 

In 1911 Governor Tener approved an act of the leg- 
islature increasing the number of directors of the dis- 
trict from three to five and vesting the power of their 
appointment in the Carbon covmty court, instead of 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 93 

leaving their selection to the direct vote of the people, 
as was formerly the case. Under the provisions of 
this act, two of the directors are allotted to Carbon 
county and three to the Luzerne portion of the district. 
This law is looked upon with general disfavor, dis- 
franchising as it does, the voters of the affected terri- 
tory, together with other objectionable features. 

A neat chapel for the use of the inmates of the alms- 
house was erected by Mrs. Eckley B. Coxe and her 
sister-in-law, Miss Rebecca Coxe, in 1900. These 
benevolent women have done much at Laurytown 
toward mitigating the monotony and hopelessness 
which, under the most favorable circumstances, are the 
concomitants of life at an institution of this nature. 
In addition to the sum expended for the maintenance 
of those kept at the almshouse, large amounts are 
annually disbursed by the directors in the form of out- 
door relief. 

The divisions of the county not belonging to the 
Middle Coal Field Poor District are principally agri- 
cultural sections, having a smaller number of paupers 
in proportion to population than the boroughs and the 
mining regions. The number of indigent people they 
have to support is insignificant, and this, in a measure, 
explains why these districts prefer to remain inde- 
pendent, although in an instance or two their tax rate 
for poor purposes is as high, or even higher, than that 
of the Middle Coal Field Poor District. 

The Carbon County Law Library was established 
by legislative enactment in 1868. The money arising 
from certain fines' and penalties imposed by the court 
is set aside for the maintenance of the library and for 
the purchase of books for the use of the court and 
members of the bar. This library, which is under the 
direction of three resident members of the bar, ap- 



94 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

pointed annually by the court, now numbers about two 
thousand volumes. 

The Carbon County Bar Association, which is co- 
eval with the county, is a voluntary organization of 
resident members of the bar, and has not yet been in- 
corporated. Until recently applicants for admission 
to the bar were examined by a committee of this asso- 
ciation, but this has now become a function of the state. 

The Carbon County Industrial Society, under the 
auspices of which the county fair is annually held at 
Lehighton, is the second organization of this nature 
in the history of the county. The first was termed the 
Carbon County Agricultural Society, which was 
formed during the summer of 1858. This society con- 
tinued in existence until 1875, holding a fair at Le- 
highton each year. It then became financially em- 
barrassed, and its property was sold on the foreclos- 
ure of a mortgage. This led to the formation of the 
present society, which was incorporated in June, 1875. 
The fairs held by this society are attended by increas- 
ing numbers with each passing year. 

Drs. J. G. Zern and J. B. Tweedle, both of whom are 
still living, were among the leading spirits in the or- 
ganization of the Carbon County Medical Society, in 
1879. This association, while not very strong numer- 
ically, has done much for the advancement of profes- 
sional knowledge among its members. 

An aid to progress in religious channels has been the 
Carbon County Sabbath School Association, which 
came into being about a decade ago. This society 
works in harmony with the State Sabbath School As- 
sociation. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MILITARY AFFAIRS. 

The military spirit which pervades the American 
republic seems to have been co-existent with the land- 
ing of the first settlers on our shores. With the excep- 
tion of a few religious organizations whose creeds 
were opposed to strife and bloodshed, and the adher- 
ents of which were frequently subjected to ridicule 
and censure, the principles of self-defense and na- 
tional supremacy have ever been dominant. 

The struggles of the hardy pioneers of this region 
for self-preservation in the Indian troubles of the 
early days have already been outlined. 

But a handful of the most venturesome had suc- 
ceeded in gaining a permanent foothold on this side 
the Blue Ridge prior to the war of Independence. Not 
a few of the heroes of that conflict later settled within 
the present limits of Carbon county, however. The 
best known among these were General Thomas Craig 
and Colonel Jacob Weiss. 

As a part of old Northampton county, this section 
contributed its proportionate share of men in the sec- 
ond war with England, while in the national emer- 
gencies which have occurred since that time. Carbon 
has remained true to the spirit of 1776. Never fal- 
tering in her patriotism, she has responded to every 
call with a heartiness and alacrity worthy of her char- 
acter and fame. 

The organization of the state militia was effected in 
early times, and ''training day," perhaps more fa- 
miliarly known as "battalion day," was looked upon 

95 



96 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

as an event of great importance by our forefathers. 
But the organization, though in a measure meeting the 
requirements of that period, was not in harmony with 
military discipline, and a law was enacted in 1822 re- 
quiring the enrollment for military duty of all able- 
bodied men between the ages of twenty-one and forty- 
five. Under the provisions of this measure a fine was 
fixed for non-attendance at "muster" or regularly 
established drills. Beyond the point of keeping up an 
enrollment for emergencies, this system was not 
greatly successful. 

In 1864, as a necessary war measure, the militia 
was re-organized in a more systematic manner; the 
state was divided into twenty military divisions, and 
companies and regiments were organized, uniformed, 
armed and equipped for active service as needed. 
This organization was termed the volunteer militia. 
Its members were largely required to bear their own 
expenses, working a serious hardship to many volun- 
teers. Later enactments provided that the state 
should pay a portion of the necessary exijenses. 

By the acts of 1870 and 1874 the volunteer militia 
became the National Guard of Pennsylvania, which 
General Sheridan once said was the only establish- 
ment of its kind amounting to anything worth while. 
The number of districts had now been reduced to ten, 
each division being placed under the command of a 
major general. 

In 1878, these divisions were abolished, the state 
being constituted a single division of three brigades. 
Under this law, Carbon county became a part of the 
territory of the Third Brigade. 

The Stockton Artillerists, of Mauch Chunk, consti- 
tuted the first organized military company of Carbon 
county. The company derived its name from Com- 



IIISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 97 

modore Robert Field Stockton, builder of the Dela- 
ware and Raritau Canal, and commander-in-chief of 
the naval forces of the United States on the Pacific 
during the war with Mexico, who was a warm per- 
sonal friend of Asa Packer. John Leisenring was the 
first captain of the company, being succeeded by Jo- 
seph H. Siewers and James Miller, respectively. 

Upon the declaration of war against Mexico, the 
company eagerly offered its services, being accepted 
by Governor Shunk. 

Prior to the departure of the men, the women of 
Mauch Chunk, during the space of three days, made 
them over three hundred shirts, together with other 
articles of practical use. The sum of fifteen hundred 
dollars, raised by voluntary subscription, was also pre- 
sented to them. 

The long journey from Mauch Chunk to the seat of 
war was begun the day before Christmas, in 1846. 
The soldiers, accompanied by a large delegation of 
citizens in conveyances, first repaired to Tamaqua. 
Here, much to their disappointment, they were met 
by the deputy secretary of the commonwealth, who 
bore an order countermanding their acceptance, with 
the explanation that the command to which they were 
to have been attached was already full. 

Thereupon the men at once resolved to proceed to 
Philadelphia and offer their services to the President. 
Going by way of Pottsville, the people of that town 
gave them a cordial welcome. 

After remaining in Philadelphia a short time, they 
were notified of their acceptance. 

Proceeding from Philadelphia to Baltimore, the 
men were transported from that point to Cumberland 
by rail, whence the journey across the Alleghanies to 
Brownsville was made in stage coaches. From there 



0g HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

they went down the Monongahela to Pittsburgh by 
boat. 

On this toilsome and tedious journey the soldiers 
were accompanied by Asa Packer and William Butler. 
The former generously footed transportation bills 
amounting to more than one thousand dollars. No 
part of this sum was ever refunded to him, nor was 
there any demand made for it. 

At Pittsburgh the company, numbering eighty-four 
men, was mustered into service as a part of the Second 
Pennsylvania Regiment. 

Among the officers of the company who afterwards 
became prominent were James Miller, the captain, and 
Robert Klotz, lieutenant. 

Embarking for New Orleans, the troops reached 
there on January 18, 1847, encamping on the field made 
famous by Jackson and his celebrated riflemen. Every- 
thing passed off pleasantly for a time; but later the 
men suffered much from wet and cold, aggravated 
by unkind treatment from the natives of the locality. 

The transport ship Ocean bore them on a rough 
passage to Lobos Island, in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Being ordered to Vera Cruz, they landed there early 
in March and were attached to General Patterson's 
command. On the day subsequent to their arrival, the 
men received their baptism of fire, with the ther- 
mometer registering one hundred and nine degrees. 

Following nearly the same route traveled by Cortez 
so long before, vastly outnumbered and facing many 
natural obstacles, the Carbon county men formed a 
part of the intrepid little army with which General 
Scott crushed Santa Anna and captured the city of 
Mexico. 

At the battle of Chapultepec, Captain Miller was se- 
lected by General Quitman to join Major Twiggs, who 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 99 

had a separate command of two hundred and forty 
picked men, constituting the storming party of the 
division. 

In the assault which followed, Twiggs was disabled 
and the command of the party devolved upon Miller, 
who, though himself wounded, led the remnant of his 
men into the frowning castle of Chapultepec, the last 
defense of the city of Mexico. Following the lead of 
Miller and his lion-hearted company, the conquering 
army swept resistlessly through the San Cosme and 
Belen gates, and at nightfall the soldiers of the Union 
were in the suburbs of the Mexican capital, while the 
war was virtually over. 

In the engagement at the National Bridge, Lieuten- 
ant Klotz was arrested for refusing to obey orders 
when the command was given to spike cannon and re- 
treat. The reply which involved him in this difficulty 

was: '' I didn't come to Mexico to spike cannon!" 

After being reprimanded, he was permitted to join his 
command the next day at the battle of Cerro Gordo. 

One of the Carbon county men, Samuel Horn, had 
served as a drummer-boy under General Scott, then 
a colonel, at Lundy's Lane, in the second war with 
England, and they renewed their friendship in Mexico. 

Twenty-three of the Stockton artillerists found sol- 
diers' graves in the land beyond the Rio Grande. 
Others were wounded and some died of disease after 
returning home. Thus the fortunes of war reduced 
their ranks to less than half their original number. 

After nineteen months of service, the survivors of 
the company returned to Pittsburgh, where they were 
honorably discharged. 

Upon their arrival in Mauch Chunk, on July 20, 
1848, they were tendered a great ovation, having previ- 
ously enjoyed the hospitality of Easton, Bethlehem, 



100 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Allentown and many other places. The sole survivor 
of this heroic band is Edward Eemmel, who resides 
at Mauch Chunk. 

THE CIVIL WAR. 

During the period which intervened between the 
close of the war with Mexico and the breaking out of 
the Rebellion, military organizations were formed in 
various parts of the county. 

Beaver Meadow and vicinity was represented by the 
Lafayette Guards, uniformed in the picturesque garb 
of the soldiers of 1812. 

At Summit Hill there was a well-drilled and excel- 
lently equipped company known as the Carbon Guards, 
first commanded by Captain Wintersteen and later by 
Captain Connor. They wore the regular light blue 
roundabout uniform of the United States Army of that 
time. 

Mauch Chunk had several companies. 

The Cleaver Artillerists derived their name from 
their captain, Oliver 0. Cleaver. They, too, wore the 
regular blue of the United States Army. Subsequently 
this company was named the Anderson Grays, new 
uniforms were adopted, and Eli T. Connor was chosen 
captain. 

Patrick F. Sharkey commanded the Hibernian 
Guards, or the Irish Infantry, uniformed similarly to 
the Lafayette Guards. Dennis McGee, the lieutenant 
of this organization, during the war became a captain 
in the Bucktail Rifles. 

The German Jaegers had John Glosser for their cap- 
tain. Adam Rose and Charles Bittner served as lieu- 
tenants. These were riflemen, having uniforms of dark 
green. 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. IQl 

Mahoning township and Lehighton had the Scott 
Eifles, wearing dark blue uniforms, and being com- 
manded by Christian Freeby. 

In addition to those which have already been men- 
tioned, there was a company of cavalrymen, prin- 
cipally from the Towamensings, commanded by John 
Craig. 

It will be seen from this that Carbon county was 
well prepared to discharge her proportionate share of 
the duty devolving upon the loyal portion of the nation 
when the South resolved upon extending and per- 
petuating the iniquitous institution of human slavery, 
and lending willing ear to the traitorous and fallacious 
doctrine of her leaders concerning States' Rights, took 
the fateful and momentous step of seceding from the 
Union. 

The intelligence that Fort Sumpter had been fired 
upon spread through the country like a flame of fire. 
Two days after Major Anderson's surrender, Lincoln 
issued a call for seventy-five thousand volunteers to 
serve three months in the overthrow of the movement 
of secession. 

The president's proclamation was greeted through- 
out Carbon county, as in every other loyal section of 
the country, with one great throe of patriotism. Vol- 
unteers in squads immediately began to pour into 
Mauch Chunk, which soon presented the appearance of 
a military encampment rather than a quiet mart of 
business. The people threw aside their ordinary vo- 
cations, thronged the streets and besieged the tele- 
graph offices for news, while the towering mountains 
re-echoed the strains of martial music. 

In the excitement of the moment, when hundreds 
were ready to follow, they cast about them for a leader. 
Eli T. Connor, then a young man of twenty-nine, com- 



102 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

manding the Anderson Grays, was acknowledged to 
be the man for the occasion, and to him the masses 
looked for guidance. Opening a recruiting office, he, 
in twenty-fours hours, enlisted three full companies of 
the best young men of the county. 

On Sunday, April 22, 1861, final preparations were 
made by the troops for their departure for Harris- 
burg early the next morning. 

After parading the streets of the town, they drew 
up before the American Hotel, where they were pre- 
sented with a handsome flag, made by the patriotic 
women of Mauch Chunk. The address of presenta- 
tion was made from the balcony by Charles Albright, 
who himself later entered the service and rose to the 
rank of brigadier general. John D. Bertolette, then a 
lieutenant, responded in behalf of the men. He subse- 
quently became a colonel, and was noted for his brave 
and soldier-like conduct. 

These three companies were attached to the Sixth 
Regiment, commanded by Colonel James Nagel, of 
Pottsville. They saw service at Harper's Ferry and 
on the Upper Potomac. Being discharged at the ex- 
piration of three months, many of the men re-enlisted 
for three years, or during the continuance of the war. 

Three weeks after the departure of the first troops 
from Carbon county, another company was recruited 
and sent to Harrisburg. These men were intended for 
the three months' service, but on reaching their des- 
tination they were informed that no more troops would 
be accepted for a shorter term than three years. Sub- 
scribing to this condition, the company became the first 
three years' organization to reach the state capital. 

The company became a part of the famous ''Buck- 
tail Rifles," which command rendered illustrious serv- 
ices in the Seven Days' battle on the Peninsula, at Bull 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 103 

Euu, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, 
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and all through the long- 
struggle from the Wilderness to the front of Peters- 
burg and Richmond. 

Pennsylvania's quota under the president's first 
call was fourteen thousand men. Within ten days 
from the date of this proclamation, Camp Curtin had 
been established at Harrisburg, and nearly twenty-six 
thousand soldiers, fully armed and equipped and in 
perfect organization, were in the field. These were 
principally militiamen, who were supplied with arms 
and accoutrements at their homes, being thoroughly 
drilled in the military tactics of the day. 

The crisis having come, the public men of Pennsyl- 
vania assumed the advance of the most zealous spirits 
of the nation, urging the government to organize pow- 
erful armies from among the loyal men who were freely 
offering their services, and thus crush the rebellion 
at a single blow. 

Simon Cameron, of this state, then secretary of 
war, recommended the raising of an army of five hun- 
dred thousand men, and the use of every element of 
strength within the reach of the government, in order 
to speedily overthrow the power of those who sought 
to dismember the Union. 

Thaddeus Stevens was even more aggressive than 
Cameron, since he advocated the organization of an 
army of a million men, the liberating of the slaves, and 
inviting them to fight for their own freedom. 

Governor Curtin, the greatest of all the war gov- 
ernors, was not only cordially in harmony with these 
views, but from first to last grandly supported the 
cause of the Union and played the part of a loving 
father toward Pennsylvania's sons in the field. 



104 HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

In honor of these statesmen it must be said that, 
after many Federal reverses, their policy was at last 
adopted by the national government. 

The military spirit pervaded Carbon county from 
the beginning of the war until its close. 

Upon the expiration of the three months' campaign 
this county raised two companies for the Twenty- 
eighth Regiment ; four for the Eighty-first ; one for the 
Sixty-seventh; one for the Fourth Pennsylvania Cav- 
alry; one for the Eleventh Regiment, and portions of 
companies for the Eleventh Infantry, the Eleventh Cav- 
alry, and the Fifty-third Regiment. Besides these, 
about a company were scattered in various other regi- 
ments. 

The Eighty-first Regiment was recruited by James 
Miller and Eli T. Connor. As has just been shown, it 
was composed largely of Carbon county men, and its 
gallantry and hard seervice earned for it the right to 
be classed among the best of the "fighting regiments" 
of the Union army. 

Miller, who so bravely led the Stockton Artillerists 
during the Mexican war, was commissioned as its 
colonel. He fell at the battle of Fair Oaks, the first 
engagement in which his regiment participated. But 
the spirit which he had instilled into his men lived after 
him, and was an important factor in their subsequent 
excellent conduct. 

Upon the fall of Miller, Connor was placed in com- 
mand. He led the regiment through the Seven Days' 
battle, and died gloriously at Malvern Hill, just a 
month after the death of Colonel Miller. 

Beginning with the Peninsular campaign, the 
Eighty-first Regiment participated in all of the import- 
ant battles and campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, 
and fought under Grant to the fall of Richmond and 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 105 

the close of the war. Its exceptional record was earned 
at the expense of a long list of casualties. 

Sergeant Obadiah Derr, a member of this regiment, 
who is still alive at Weatherly, bears the reputation 
of having received more wounds than any other sol- 
dier from Carbon county. He was six times severely 
wounded. 

When Lee made his first invasion of the North, 
which was checked at Antietam, a large number of 
men from this county volunteered for the emergency. 
Two full companies were also organized here during 
1862 for the One Hundred and Thirty-second Regiment. 

In the summer of 1863, when the Southern army, 
flushed with the victories of Fredericksburg and Chan- 
cellorsville, invaded Pennsylvania, the county sent 
over four hundred men to help repel the enemy. Dur- 
ing 1864, over two hundred men volunteered for one 
year. In addition to this the various subdistricts of 
the county paid bounties to the amount of hundreds of 
thousands of dollars to other volunteers. 

All told, Carbon county furnished over two thou- 
sand men for the suppression of the Rebellion. This 
is, indeed, a remarkable showing when it is remem- 
bered that her total population in 1860 was but a little 
over twenty-one thousand. Many of the inhabitants, 
too, were either foreign born, or the children of immi- 
grants. The German, Irish, Welsh and Scotch na- 
tionalities predominated. Yet these men were just as 
loyal, and fought quite as heroically for the preserva- 
tion of our institutions as did those whose ancestors 
came over in the Mayflower. To recount the story 
of their valor in its fulness would be to recount the 
story of the Civil War. They figured in all the im- 
portant manoeuvres of the armies, from the pesti- 
lential swamps of Virginia to the everglades of 



X06 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Florida; on raids and foraging expeditions, on the 
battle front and the lonely picket line, crossing the 
*' dead-line" at Andersonville, Libby and Bell Isle for 
prompt relief from lingering death and starvation, 
vermin and cruel exposure; languishing with shat- 
tered bodies in hastily improvised field hospitals ; con- 
tributing their share to the accumulations from the 
surgeon's knife, or breathing their young lives away, 
far from friends and loved ones, at the isolated spot 
where the fatal bullet found its mark. A few followed 
the sea and faced the additional dangers of old ocean. 

Of the seventy-eight officers from the county, fifteen 
were killed, one died of disease, while thirty -nine were 
wounded. Taking officers and men together, five- 
eighths were killed or wounded. 

Not only is the record of Carbon county unsurpassed 
by any section remaining loyal to the Union, whether 
considering the number of men furnished in propor- 
tion to voting population, or their bravery and heroism 
on the field of battle, but the same is true in speaking 
of the health and endurance of our soldiers. 

The grand record of casualties among the United 
States volunteers during the war shows that double 
the number of men died of disease to those that were 
killed in battle. 

In comparison to this the files of the war depart- 
ment show that three times as many soldiers from 
this county were killed in action as died of disease. 

THE WAR WITH SPAIN. 

The blowing-up of the battleship Maine in the har- 
bor of Havana on February 15, 1898, and the result- 
ing loss of a large proportion of her crew, it was at 
once felt would make war between the United States 
and Spain inevitable. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. JQ? 

Strained relations had existed between the two na- 
tions for some time previous to this dreadful oc- 
currence, owing to the attitude of the American people, 
who sympathized with Cuba, a dependency of Spain, in 
her struggle against the tyranny of the mother coun- 
try. 

When the court of inquiry, appointed to ascertain 
the cause of the catastrophe, reported that the ship 
had been destroyed by a mine in the harbor, and not 
by the explosion of her own magazines, it was taken 
as conclusive evidence that the Spanish authorities 
were responsible for the horror. This conviction re- 
sulted in the extinction of Spanish power on the Amer- 
ican continent. 

On April 21, Spain dismissed the United States 
minister, breaking off diplomatic relations, which was 
practically a declaration of war. 

President McKinley at once issued a call for one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand volunteers. The 
sons of the North and the South, with wonderful unan- 
imity, promj3tly responded, and the quotas of the dif- 
ferent states were filled in a few hours, while thou- 
sands of disappointed applicants were turned away. 

Before the land forces could be brought into action, 
the Spanish fleet in the Pacific was crushed in the most 
startling and dramatic fashion by the squadron of 
Commodore Dewey. 

Carbon county's contribution to the army was made 
principally under the second call for volunteers, and 
consisted of about one hundred and twenty-five men. 
Most of these belonged to the company recruited by 
Dr. William H. Clewell, of Summit Hill, which was 
attached to the Ninth Eegiment, commanded by Colonel 
Charles B. Dougherty, of Wilkes-Barre. Robert S. 



208 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Mercur, of the same place, was the captain of the com- 
pany, while Clewell served as lieutenant. 

The men were mustered into service in the old arm- 
ory at Summit Hill, formerly the home of the Carbon 
Guards, leaving for Camp George H. Thomas, at 
Chickamauga, on the ninth of July. They were not 
uniformed or equipped until their arrival in the South. 

Nearly thirty men from the Panther Creek Vallej^ 
joined the Eighth Regiment at Tamaqua, under the 
command of Colonel Theodore Hoffman. This regi- 
ment was first stationed at Camp Alger, near Falls 
Church, Va. ^ 

But in a war between two nations of such unequal 
strength and fitness as the United States and Spain 
there could be but one outcome. After a struggle as 
brief as it was futile, Spain submitted to her more 
powerful rival. Thus no opportunity was afforded 
the men of this region to "flash the maiden sword"; 
but they displayed their patriotism in responding to 
the country's call. 

Nearly all participated in the military parade of the 
Peace Jubilee at Philadelphia in the latter part of 
September, joining ranks with a host of veterans of 
the Civil War. 

The Ninth Regiment was mustered out of service at 
Wilkes-Barre on October 29, while the Eighth fol- 
lowed suit at Camp MacKenzie, Ga., March 7, 1899. 

A few men from Carbon county took part in sup- 
pressing the insurrection in the Philippine Islands, 
which followed American occupation of the archi- 
pelago. Among the number was Captain William H. 
Wilhelm, a gallant officer of the regular army, who was 
killed during the month of June, 1901. 



CHAPTER IX. 

EDUCATION. 

It is interesting in this age of free schools and gen- 
eral enlightenment to look back upon the educational 
facilities of our forefathers, and to consider the hard- 
ships and difficulties which beset the pathway of the 
children of the pioneers in their quest of knowledge. 

Among the old records of the Dutch government on 
the Delaware is found an account of the labors of 
Evert Pieterson, who held the office of "schoolmaster, 
sexton, comforter of the sick and setter of psalms." 

He arrived in the colony in April, 1657, and in mid- 
summer of that year was teaching twenty-five pupils. 
This was the first educational institution, as nearly as 
can be ascertained, in what is now Pennsylvania. 

The Swedes, too, established schools in the earliest 
years of their settlement on the Delaware. But these 
schools are merely historical curiosities. 

The foundations of education in Pennsylvania were 
laid by William Penn. The original "Frame of Gov- 
ernment" and the "Great Law," enacted in the first 
year of the province, provided that "schools shall be 
established for the education of the young." 

Acting upon this provision, a school was opened in 
Philadelphia by Enoch Flowers, in 1683, each pupil 
being charged a small sum for tuition. In 1689, the 
Friends' public grammar school, which afterward be- 
came the William Penn Charter School, was opened in 
Philadelphia. It was not a public school, in the mod- 
ern sense of the term, but resembled the so-called 
"public schools" of England. It was endowed and 

109 



110 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

free only to the poor, while those in better circum- 
stances were required to pay reasonable tuition fees. 

In the early history of the province, the schools with 
few exceptions were under religious domination. The 
minister was usually expected to serve also as school- 
master, while much of the instruction given related 
to subjects embraced in the catechism of the church. 
Protestants and Catholics alike adopted this policy, 
thereby establishing a strong prejudice against any 
attempt on the part of the civil authorities to usurp 
their functions in matters pertaining to educaition. 
However, the number of church schools was inade- 
quate, and where people lived five or ten miles from a 
church, or where a variety of religious denominations 
existed, schools were organized by neighborhoods. 
The building of a house and the employment of a 
teacher was usually entrusted to a committee elected 
by the neighborhood. The money needed was raised 
by voluntary subscription. These schools after a time 
outnumbered those sustained by religious bodies, ow- 
ing to the intermingling of sects and nationalities as 
the population grew. 

The provincial school house was generally a rough 
log cabin, and the spaces between the logs were filled 
with chips of wood and plastered with mortar. The 
floors were of earth and sometimes of timber, through 
which snakes often crawled. Nearly one side of the 
house was occupied by the immense chimney, and there 
were several windows with small panes of glass. The 
furniture consisted of four-legged benches made of 
logs split in two and hewn to a proper thickness, 
and stools and tables of the same material and work- 
manship. The desks were placed against the wall, 
facing outward, while seats without backs were in the 
middle of the room for the smaller scholars. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. HI 

The first regular branch of instruction was reading, 
for this was preparatory to learning the catechism 
and taking part in religious exercises. When writing 
was first introduced it was confined wholly to boys, a& 
the acquirement was deemed unnecessary for girls. 
Ink was made of nut-galls bruised, to which was added 
a proper proportion of water and some rusty nails. 
Paper was costly, and birch bark was often used as a 
substitute. Arithmetic was taught, but without the 
use of books. The "sums" were dictated by the mas- 
ter and worked out on paper or bark, for blackboards 
were unknown, and slates and pencils did not come 
into use until after the Revolution. 

If the equipment of these schools was rude and 
primitive, the instruction given was frequently in har- 
mony with the surroundings. 

The state, in 1776, took no ground in advance of 
the church and neighborhood schools when it pro- 
posed to furnish elementary instruction at low prices. 

In 1790, however, Timothy Pickering, of Luzerne; 
William Findley, of Westmoreland, and others, suc- 
ceeded in getting the words — ''in such manner that the 
poor shall be taught gratis" — attached to the constitu- 
tional clause on schools. 

Magnanimous as the intent of the authors of this 
provision may have been, it later became apparent 
that the cause of popular education had not been much 
advanced by the paternal attitude thus assumed by the 
state. 

For several decades the lawmakers of Pennsylvania 
hoped to be able to secure universal education by 
simply providing for the gratuitous instruction of 
the poor, and long continued to make labored efforts to 
that end. 



112 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY, 

For purposes of classification, the pupils* names 
were enrolled as "pay" and "paujjer" scholars. 

The law provided that the tuition of the latter class 
should be paid by the county, whenever the returns of 
the assessors showed that the parents were unable to 
bear the expense. But the sense of equality that had 
been engendered by free institutions was such that all 
attempts to educate poor children at the public ex- 
pense, in schools with other children or in schools by 
themselves, completely failed. 

The class distinctions that had been broken up in 
general society could not be preserved in school. Pov- 
erty could deaden self-respect in few parents to the 
extent of allowing their children to attend schools 
where they were certain to be looked down upon as 
belonging to an inferior class. These schools came 
to be despised by the rich and shunned by the poor. 

Then it was that the idea arose of educating all the 
children in the state, irrespective of their pecuniary 
condition, at the public expense. To many well-mean- 
ing people, however, it seemed unreasonable to levy 
taxes for the schooling of those amply able to pay their 
own bills. It looked to them like a blow at self-reli- 
ance and paternal responsibility. 

To further complicate the situation, it was claimed 
that there was no constitutional warrant to appro- 
priate any money except for the poor, and, hence, it 
was necessary to define the term, thus emphasizing 
and, to a certain extent, perpetuating the pauper con- 
ditions. 

It was not until the supreme court of the state de- 
cided that tlie constitution did not prohibit the use 
of state money for others than the poor that a way was 
seen to go forward. On this negative decision is built 
the whole public school system of Pennsylvania. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 113 

The need of better and more adequate educational 
facilities was painfully apparent when the "Pennsyl- 
vania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools" 
was organized in Philadelphia in 1827. Roberts Vaux 
was the leading spirit in the affairs of this society, 
which effectively agitated the question at issue, and 
public meetings and memorials sprang up over the 
state. This culminated in 1834 in the enactment of a 
law which provided for the establishment of schools 
which should be free to all. 

The most influential champion of this measure was 
Governor George Wolfe, the son of a German immi- 
grant, of Northampton county. This, the beginning 
of the common school system, inaugurated a new era 
in the progress of universal education in the state. 

The new law, however, met with strong opposition, 
even from the friends of the system, who distrusted its 
methods. But it had a fearless champion in Thad- 
deus Stevens, with whom Wolfe courageously joined 
in defense of the system when a desperate but unsuc- 
cessful attempt was made by the legislature in 1835 
to overthrow it. 

No special effort was at first made to put the new 
school system in operation. The law was in some re- 
spects imperfect, and supplementary legislation was 
necessary to correct its weaknesses. Besides, the 
question of its adoption or rejection was discretionary 
with the people of each district, and many rejected it, 
preferring to go on in the old way. But in 1849 the 
law was made applicable to every part of the state. 

The act of 1854 introduced new and important fea- 
tures, while the main points of the law were left un- 
changed. It created the office of county superintend- 
ent of schools, authorized the levying and collection of 
school taxes, and gave fuller powers generally to 



114 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

boards of directors. For the first time since the begin- 
ning of the crusade for free schools, the district officers 
were clothed with adequate authority to enforce the 
law. 

Three years later, the state superintendency of com- 
mon schools was made a separate office ; before that its 
duties were performed by the secretary of the com- 
monwealth. 

At the same time the normal school law was passed, 
providing for the establishment under state aid of 
institutions for the professional preparation of teach- 
ers. 

The system of soldiers' orphan schools established 
in 1864 marked the beginning of a scheme of benevo- 
lence without a parallel in the history of any other 
state or nation. 

Pennsylvania furnished nearly four hundred thou- 
sand men in the war for the preservation of the Union. 
It is estimated that fifty thousand of these fell in battle 
or died in hospitals, while perhaps an equal number 
returned to their homes greatly disabled with wounds 
or shattered in health. Many left widows and children 
in destitute circumstances. 

The war had not long continued before hundreds of 
the orphaned or worse than orphaned children of sol- 
diers were reduced to want and beggary or were com- 
pelled to find food and shelter in some almshouse or 
other charitable institution. 

It was then that the great, patriotic heart of Penn- 
sylvania was moved and the plan formed by which the 
children of dead or disabled soldiers were collected, 
maintained, educated and cared for to the age of six- 
teen years, and then placed in circumstances giving an 
opportunity for a fair start in life. 



HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 115 

This charity, if such it may properly be termed, is 
said to have been suggested by the necessities of two 
children who called at the executive mansion at Har- 
risburg on Thanksgiving Day, in 1863, asking for 
bread. Governor Curtin met them at the door, and to 
his kindly questions they answered in their childish 
way that their father had been killed in battle, and 
that their mother had since died, while they were en- 
tirely friendless and alone. 

The voice of these children was the voice of God, 
speaking to the noble head of the commonwealth. For 
two years he had been calling for troops and urging 
men to the field, and, behold, their little ones had 
become beggars! 

Before the coming of another Thanksgiving day 
proper provisions had been made for the education 
and care of this deserving class among our people. 

During the period when they were most needed, the 
state appropriated as high as six hundred thousand 
dollars annually for the maintenance of these schools, 
in which, to-day, after nearly fifty years, about six 
hundred children are still enrolled, a few of the num- 
ber being from Carbon county. 

Among the crowning acts to make elementary edu- 
cation universal in Pennsylvania were the free-text 
book law of 1893, and the compulsory attendance law 
of 1895. 

In the beginning the state appropriated about $100,- 
000 a year to the public schools. In 1875, the amount 
had risen to $1,000,000, while in recent years the an- 
nual appropriation has reached the enormous sum of 
$7,500,000. 

The first school to be opened within the limits of 
Carbon county was that conducted by the Moravians 



115 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

in connection with Gnadenhiitten mission, which occu- 
pied the present site of Lehighton. 

The Indians who gathered daily for prayer in the 
little chapel on the Mahoning were also taught to read 
and were instructed in the mechanic arts and in 
the cultivation of the soil. These efforts seemed to 
be very encouraging at first, but in the course of a 
few years, the land became impoverished through im- 
proper treatment, and the seat of the mission was 
changed to the opposite side of the Lehigh, where 
Weissport now stands. 

The evil fate which befell this settlement in the In- 
dian uprising of 1755 brought to an abrupt termination 
the work which had been so disinterestedly undertaken 
and begun. From this time forth until the coal and 
lumber interests began to be developed, educational 
considerations may scarcely be said to have existed 
in the county. 

In 1837, a few lonely cabins dotted the secluded 
valleys of the Lehigh. With these exceptions, the 
whole county was a dreary wilderness. But when 
the felling of the forests began, and as the demand 
for anthracite coal increased with a better understand- 
ing of its nature and the uses to which it might be put, 
extensive improvements became necessary. Large 
numbers' of miners, lumbermen, various kinds of me- 
(^hanics, clerks, bookkeepers, and common laborers 
came upon the scene. Both labor and capital secured 
liberal rewards, and villages and towns sprang up as 
if by magic. Many different nationalities were brought 
together here, while a large proportion of them were 
illiterate. 

It soon became evident to the proprietors of the 
mines and lumber mills that the hundreds of children 
who could neither work in the mines nor in the mills 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 117 

were growing up in idleness, with all its attendant 
vices, and that they would have to be educated, or 
these sources of wealth would become a curse instead 
of a blessing to society. Accordingly, schools were 
provided for some of these children. The results of 
these experiments were so gratifying that within a few 
years flourishing school were found in nearly every 
lumber camp and mining village in the county. The 
houses were generally provided by the landowners or 
the operators, and given free of rent for school pur- 
poses. The teachers obtained the right to teach in 
these houses from their legal owners, or from the com- 
mittees having them in charge. The instructors had 
entire control of the schools, managing them to suit 
their own peculiar views or whims. Tuition fees varied 
from $1.50 to $2.50 per quarter for each pupil. 

In 1750 an English colony was planted in East Penn 
township, some of whose descendants are still living in 
that locality. Refusing to give aid to the German or 
mixed schools, and being too few in number to main- 
tain one of their own, they preferred to do entirely 
without a school until 1817, when they succeeded in es- 
tablishing an exclusively English institution. A good, 
substantial stone house was erected near the locality 
known as Ashfield, and a three months' term was 
taught by Lawrence Enge, who was the first master of 
the school. A certificate given by a later teacher to a 
pupil read: "This is to certify that the Bearer 
Hannah Andreas is the head of her class by good at- 
tention to her book and hereby has gained the good- 
will of her tutor, Andrew Cronican the 30th of Janu- 
ary, 1821." 

In 1820, a board of school trustees was elected at a 
town meeting held at Summit Hill. It consisted of 
three members, whose duty it was to provide a house 



llg HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

for the accommodation of those who wished to send 
their children to school, and who were willing to pay 
the tuition fees^ fixed by the teacher. 

After making a number of ineffectual attempts to 
raise money by voluntary subscriptions to build a 
school house, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- 
pany came to their relief by erecting a building and 
giving it to the board of trustees, to be held in trust 
for school purposes. It was furnished with long board 
benches and desks, a rough board table for the teacher, 
and an old stove. George iVdams was engaged to teach 
the school. The branches taught were reading, writ- 
ing and arithmetic. 

About the same time a school was opened in Mahon- 
ing on the spot where Gnadenhiitten mission had been 
established in 1746. The house, which was of logs, 
was one story high, and was divided into two rooms, 
one being used for school and the other for church 
purposes. This building was furnished similarly to 
that at Summit Hill. The property was owned by the 
citizens of the place and was controlled by a board of 
trustees. This school was kept open during the winter 
season for many years, and some of the pupils who at- 
tended it were obliged to travel long distances in 
order to enjoy the advantages it afforded. 

A school was started at Nesquehoning in 1830, being 
organized and equipped similarly to those that have 
already been mentioned. The branches taught were 
spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic, while the 
text-books used were Comley's Primer and Spelling 
Book, Murray's Introduction and English Reader, and 
the Bible. 

Writing in the schools of this period was still done 
with quill pens, all of which were prepared by the 
teacher. This was quite a task, particularly so if he 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 119 

chanced to have a dull knife and had many pens to 
mend. 

On visiting a school, it was not an unusual thing to 
hear a half dozen urchins call out, "Master, will you 
mend my pen ? ' ' Whether the master 's reply would be 
a pleasant "yes," or a surly "I got no time," de- 
pended largely upon the humor he was in when the 
request was made. 

From 1825 to 1835, schools were established in dif- 
ferent sections of the county on pretty much the same 
plan. When it was thought necessary to start a school, 
a town meeting was called, and three or five persons 
selected to act as trustees. These held their offices 
during good behavior, under a sort of civil service 
reform principle. The duty of the trustees was to 
raise money by voluntary subscription or contribution, 
select and purchase sites, superintend the erection of 
school houses, and hold them in trust for school uses. 

As it was a difficult matter to raise a large amount 
of money for such purposes in this manner, the strict- 
est economy had to be exercised, and sites selected 
where they could be had for the least money, regard- 
less of their convenience or adaptability. 

Consequently they were mostly poorly chosen and 
out-of-the-way places, hard by a public highway or 
upon some waste ground that could not well be put to 
any other profitable use. 

The trustees did not hire the teachers. All that was 
necessary for one who wished to become a teacher was 
to get permission from the trustees to use the house, 
arrange for pupils and fix a tuition fee. The larger 
the number of subscribers, the better the returns, of 
course. But it may easily be imagined that the pro- 
fession of teaching was not at that time exactly an 
alluring one from the financial point of view. 



120 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

The most famous among the early schoolmasters of 
Carbon county was James Nowlins, a native of Ire- 
land, who, in 1829, began his career as a teacher in 
Mauch Chunk. The building in which he was destined 
to achieve his triumphs was one of the worst type of 
slab houses The furnishings corresponded well with 
the structure itself, and there were no mottoes or orna- 
ments to decorate the rough, gloomy walls and cheer 
the minds of the pupils. 

Nowlins was a man of fine literary attainments, but 
was decidedly eccentric, while being a strict disciplin- 
arian. His school was composed of more than one hun- 
dred pupils, many of whom came long distances, think- 
ing it quite a privilege to be permitted to sit under 
the teachings of so great a master. All the common 
English branches were taught, and some of the higher 
ones, too. He would allow no dull scholar to remain 
in school. When he chanced to get hold of such an 
unfortunate one, he would tell him at once, "What God 
has denied you, I cannot give you ; take your books and 
go home ! ' ' 

The chief instrument for inflicting torture was a 
short hickory club, with leather thongs fastened to one 
end. These the professor called his "taws." 

So deep and lasting were the impressions that he 
made upon the minds and backs of his pupils with this 
dread weapon that one of them, recalling his memory, 
after the lapse of half a century, declared: "While I 
am telling this, my back itches, and the hairs on my 
head bristle up like a porcupine's quills, while the 
ghost of Jimmy Nowlins, with his 'taws' in hand, 
seems to rise menacingly before me." 

But while Nowlins' methods would to-day be consid- 
ered unspeakable and doubtless result in summary 
vengeance being visited upon his head, they were not 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 121 

entirely unusual then, and in his case, at least, pro- 
duced good results. 

Quite a number of men who became prominent in 
various fields of endeavor, owed their subsequent suc- 
cess in large measure to the training they had received 
in his school. It seems like the irony of fate that Now- 
lins, who placed so many others on the pathway lead- 
ing to success, should himself have died in the poor- 
house. 

The early settlers of East Penn and Towamensing 
were with few exceptions Germans or their descend- 
ants, members of the Lutheran or the Reformed 
church. It was their custom to partition off one room 
in each of their church buildings for school purposes. 
And the church organist, however deficient that worthy 
might be in other branches of learning, was called 
upon to act as schoolmaster. 

Almost without exception the German language was 
taught in these schools. 

When the free school law was passed, in 1834, there 
were twenty-eight schools established within the pres- 
ent limits of Carbon county. They nearly all belonged 
to the primitive type which has already been described, 
and their equipment was little in advance of that of 
colonial times, while the school term was of but three 
or four months' duration. Wood, of course, was 
burned to warm the buildings, and this was purchased 
by the teacher, who added an extra charge to the tui- 
tion fee therefor. The heating apparatus generally con- 
sisted of some old cast-off stove, purchased from the 
scrap-pile of some iron-monger. 

The houses were either deficient in smoke-flues, or 
altogether without them; hence the stove pipe had to 
answer a double purjDose. In order to save pipe, it 
was usually made to pass through the loft floor only, 



122 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, 

not extending through the roof, while the smoke was 
left to find its way out through the chinks between 
the logs, or be forced down into the school room. 
Consequently the school room was frequently filled 
with smoke, to the great annoyance and discomfort 
of teacher and pupils. 

This condition of affairs would sometimes be taken 
advantage of by the people of the neighborhood, who 
would bring their meat to the school house to get it 
smoked. 

Most of the districts of the county accepted the free 
school law with gratifying promptness and, in 1843, 
when the county was organized, all the townships 
within its limits had adopted it, and the day of prog- 
ress was rapidly dawning. 

Mauch Chunk already had a school house which was 
considered the equal of almost any other structure of 
its kind in the state, and her schools were well con- 
ducted. In 1844, there were three schools in opera- 
tion at Summit Hill, while Nesquehoning, Rockport, 
Beaver Meadow and Weatherly all had flourishing 
schools. 

The first triennial convention of directors met at 
Mauch Chunk early in June, 1854, electing J. H. Sie- 
wers, an experienced educator, to the office of county 
superintendent. His salary was fixed at $400 per 
annum, which was not entirely an exceptional case, for 
there was but one superintendent of schools in the 
state at that time receiving more than $1,000 a year. 
Perhaps the principal reason for this niggardliness 
was that the people did not generally approve of the 
office, which they considered superfluous, viewing its 
incumbent in the light of an impertinent, meddlesome 
loafer. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 123 

But Siewers was a warm friend of the public school 
system. During his term of office he did much to break 
down whatever prejudices still existed against it, and 
by visiting the schools, giving advice to teachers, hold- 
ing public meetings, and addressing the people on the 
importance of more liberal means of education, 
achieved grand results. 

The cause of popular education in Carbon county 
was also ably championed in the early days by such 
broad-minded, public-spirited citizens as R. Q. Butler, 
J. D. Bertolette, Fisher Hazard, N. B. Reber, Charles 
Meendsen, Paul Kresge, and others. 

Thomas L. Foster, a member of the legal profession, 
followed Siewers as county superintendent. Under 
his supervision the schools continued to improve. He 
labored particularly for the improvement of houses, 
ventilation, furniture, methods of instruction, and 
better classification of schools. 

He was succeeded in 1863 by R. F. Hofford, a man 
of solid worth, who held the office continuously until 
1881. During this long period many advances were 
made. One of his first important acts was to adopt 
measures to secure a better co-operation of the educa- 
tional forces of the county, resulting in the permanent 
organization of the Carbon County Teachers' Insti- 
tute in the fall of 1864. The annual gatherings of this 
body have done much toward elevating the teacher's 
profession and promoting the cause of education in 
the county. 

Upon Hofford 's retirement, T. M. Balliet, a native 
of Mahoning township, and a thoroughly capable young 
man, who has since become one of the recognized lead- 
ers of his profession in the Untied States, succeeded 
to the duties of the office. 



124 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

At the expiration of six years, he relinquished the 
position to T. A. Snyder, who served for three succes- 
sive terms, studied law, and became a member of the 
bar. 

A. S. Beisel, who followed him, held the office until 
1902, when the present incumbent, James J. Bevan, 
was elected. The latter has' placed particular em- 
phasis upon the importance of grounding the pupils 
well in English, and has done everything possible to 
foster the best interests of education throughout the 
county. 

There are now many fine, modern school buildings in 
Carbon county. Their equipment is up-to-date, and 
higher standards are being established year after year. 

There are thirteen high schools in the county, eight 
of which are situated in the various boroughs; three 
are classed as township high schools, while the two 
remaining are supported by the independent districts 
of Franklin and Packerton, respectively. Banks, 
Mauch Chunk and Lower Towamensing are the town- 
ships which have established these schools. 

The large amount of money appropriated by the 
state toward the maintenance of the public schools, has 
aided materially in securing better salaries, wMle 
resulting in legislation requiring higher training and 
efficiency on the part of teachers than formerly. True 
as this may be generally, there are a number of dis- 
tricts in the county where the pay of teachers is not 
higher to-day than that of forty years ago, notwith- 
standing the aid accorded by the state. The study of 
agriculture has during recent years been introduced in 
nearly all of the schools of the rural districts. 

While the public schools have had such a grand 
march of progress, there have been no permanently 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 125 

successful attempts made to establish private schools, 
or schools devoted to higher education in the county. 

Park Seminary, opened at Mauch Chunk in 1832; 
the Carbon Academy and Normal Association, founded 
in 1853, first located at Weissport, and later at Le- 
highton, and Fairview Academy, which had a short- 
lived career at East Mauch Chunk, were efforts in this 
direction. 

Another institution of this nature was the Normal 
Institute, originally known as Normal Square Select 
School, located at what is now known as the village of 
Normal, in Mahoning township. This school was 
founded about the year 1878 by Professor Thomas M. 
Balliet. It was housed in a public school building, and 
was kept open during the seasons of spring and fall. 
Its primary purpose was to prepare those in attend- 
ance for admission to the higher institutions of learn- 
ing; and a large number of young people of both sexes 
from the surrounding country availed themselves of its 
advantages. 

When weather conditions were favorable, recitations 
were often conducted after the manner of the ancients, 
beneath the trees. 

Most of the students were sturdy farmer boys, not 
a few of whom laid the foundations of a liberal educa- 
tion and a larger usefulness in the environment cre- 
ated by the school. These are now literally scattered 
from ocean to ocean. 

After the first few seasons, the school was conducted 
for the most part by successive students and graduates 
of Franklin and Marshall College. It was finally 
closed during the early nineties. 

The Carbon Academy, later known as the Lehighton 
Academy, while not a financial success, also served a 
useful purpose. 



126 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

In addition to the schools which have already been 
mentioned, flourishing parochial schools are being 
maintained by the Catholic churches of Mauch Chunk, 
East Mauch Chunk, Lehighton and Lansford. 

A school of this description, opened in connection 
with the Episcopal church of Mauch Chunk, was dis- 
continued after a time for want of sufficient patronage. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE MOLLIE MAGUIRES. 



While Carbon county, by reason of its smaller area 
and population, contained fewer Mollie Maguires than 
either of the neighboring counties of Luzerne and 
Schuylkill, it nevertheless occupies a position of equal 
importance to these in the popular mind when the 
memory of the crimes and outrages perpetrated by the 
members of that dark and blood-stained organization 
are recalled. 

It was at Mauch Chunk, after the most fearless and 
resolute of the law-abiding members of society in the 
coal regions had begim to despair of ever being able 
to bring a Mollie Maguire to justice for the commis- 
sion of crime, that the first conviction and execution 
of one of this lawless and murderous band took place. 

It is difficult to secure definite and reliable informa- 
tion concerning the origin of this organization, the 
very name of which was a reproach to the civilization 
of the coal fields for more than a generation. 

The nucleus of the American contingent came from 
Ii eland, and were closely identified with, if not actual 
members of, the Ancient Order of Hibernians. It is 
evident that the men who comprised this company 
of outlaws were of Irish birth, and that most, if not 
all of them, came here direct from the green shores of 
Erin. 

It appears that the Mollie Maguires were an out- 
growth of the Ribbonmen, or auxiliaries of that so- 
ciety. This association was formed in Ireland during 
the early part of the nineteenth century for the pur- 
pose of resisting landlords and their agents in the en- 

127 



128 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

forced collection of rentals. As a branch of this so- 
ciety, and growing out of it, sprang the men known 
as Mollie Maguires; and the name of their organiza- 
tion simply arose from the fact that, in the perpetra- 
tion of their offenses, they originally dressed as 
women. Generally, too, they ducked or beat their vic- 
tims, or inflicted some such punishment as infuriated 
women would be likely to administer. It is quite likely, 
besides, that at some time or other they had a leader 
or patroness named Mary, or Mollie Maguire. 

These men came from intimate contact with the 
heartless landlords and their unfeeling agents in Ire- 
land, and they transferred the prejudices which they 
had a right to entertain against these to the coal 
operators and their subordinates in authority, the men 
under whom it was their lot to labor for the means of 
subsistence. 

No doubt, in some instances they suffered real 
wrongs, and were treated with culpable injustice, but 
it is safe to say that in the majority of cases the griev- 
ances of which they complained were imaginary rather 
than real encroachments upon their rights, and of 
which knavish and designing wretches took advantage 
in inciting to deeds of violence and outrage. 

Crimes of the most shocking nature were committed, 
and the perpetrators permitted, in many instances, to 
go unpunished through fear of a like fate being visited 
upon the informer. Dastardly outrages were com- 
mitted with impunity, and the lives and property of 
** marked" individuals were in constant jeopardy. 

Lawlessness and crime had existed in the coal re- 
gion since 1848, and these early depredations were aft- 
erwards identified as the work of the Mollie Maguires, 
since they then employed the same methods of warn- 
ing their victims as they later did. These warnings 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 129 

were crude drawings of coffins, pistols, skulls and 
cross-bones, and vulgar notes, declaring the demands 
upon the persons for whom they were intended. 

They were variously signed, sometimes being given 
under the name of ''One of Mollie's Children," and at 
other times as ''Black Spots" or "Buck Shots" and 
similar designations. 

The society received large accessions in membership 
during the early days of the Civil War, when there 
was a great demand for men to take the places of 
those who had so generously rallied in defense of the 
nation and its institutions. Among those who re- 
sponded to this demand from across the seas were the 
worst classes of the downtrodden population of 
Europe. 

It was now becoming apparent that the anthracite 
coal fields were infested by spirits the most desperate 
and lawless, and, when in 1862, an enrollment for the 
purpose of a draft was ordered, the formidable and 
dangerous character that animated and distinguished 
these men was made manifest. 

Assaults, arson and murders were committed, and 
the officers of the law seemed utterly powerless to ap- 
prehend or bring to justice the perpetrators of these 
crimes. Coal operators were ordered to suspend 
operations until the discontinuance of the draft, while 
mine foremen and their men were warned, at the peril 
of their lives, not to overlook this peremptory demand. 
Murders, incendiarism and open riots became more 
frequent and bold, and but little attempt was made 
in the way of concealing these crimes. It was at first 
thought that opposition to the enrollments and drafts 
upon the part of this lawless element had inspired 
much of the violence and crime that prevailed during 
the period of the war ; but upon the termination of hos- 



130 HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

tilities, when crime and bloodshed were daily becoming 
more rampant, the people at last awoke to a realization 
of the fact that an organization existed among them 
that was more formidable and dangerous than any 
avowed and open foe could possibly be. 

Men were sometimes killed in broad daylight; some- 
times in the darkness of night, and invariably by 
strangers — persons at least unknown to chance spec- 
tators, or to the parties violently put out of the way. 
Suspected individuals would be apprehended, but in 
the end nobody could be found able to identify the 
criminals. The Mollies ruled the people with a rod 
of iron. The voice of their dread fraternity was un- 
heard, but its fiendish work was none the less surely 
performed. 

Even the political sentiments of the commonwealth 
were to some extent moulded by them, and in their par- 
itcular field they elected or defeated whomsoever they 
pleased. 

The men whose capital was locked up in the coal beds 
were as obedient puppets in their hands, while there 
was absolutely no security for life and property. 

This was the state of affairs in the anthracite coal 
regions in the fall of 1873, when Franklin B. Gowan, 
then president of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- 
way Company and of the Philadelphia and Reading 
Coal and Iron Company, made arrangements with 
Allan Pinkerton, head of the world-famed detective 
agency of that name, to send a detective into the 
haunts of the Mollie Maguires, with a view to breaking 
up their organization, punishing its guilty members 
and restoring the reign of law and order in that por- 
tion of the commonwealth. 

The man who, after mature deliberation, was called 
upon to perform this arduous and hazardous under- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 131 

taking was a young Irishman named James McParlan, 
who assumed the name of James McKenna. He is still 
alive, and some years ago was detailed to unravel the 
mystery surrounding the murder of Governor Steu- 
nenberg of Idaho, but in that case he was not so suc- 
cessful as he was in exposing the Mollie Maguires and 
in bringing them to justice. 

Prior to his connection with the two great Penn- 
sylvania corporations, Mr. Gowan had been the district 
attorney of Schuylkill county, and his duties in that 
position had brought him frequently in contact with 
the work of the Mollie Maguires. He was, therefore, 
able to render valuable assistance in the prosecution 
of the task which was freighted with such far-reaching 
consequences to the inhabitants of the coal regions. 

McParlan was successful, at the end of nearly six 
months, in establishing himself in the confidence and 
good-will of the members of the society which he was 
seeking to overthrow, and was initiated as a member 
of the order at Shenandoah, Schuylkill county. 

Not only is much of the credit for the disruption of 
the Mollies' organization due to McParlan, but we are 
largely indebted to him for what knowledge there is 
of how its inside workings were conducted. As Mc- 
Parlan learned, it was an oath-bound society, whose 
members recognized each other by signs and pass- 
words and were required under dire penalties to carry 
out the orders of their officers and to execute the man- 
dates of the body to which they chanced to belong. 
They were organized in small local societies, termed 
"bodies," presided over by a president, known as the 
**body master." All grievances of members were laid 
before the ''body," and it was there determined what 
measures of redress or vengeance, if any, should be 
resorted to. When the object of vengeance was merely 



1^2 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

to be punished or beaten, the members of the "body" 
were generally called upon to perform the job. When 
there was need of greater secrecy, the members of 
other "bodies," living at a distance, were usually se- 
cured to carry out the wishes of the society. 

This was a rule that was nearly always adhered to 
in cases where murder was intended, making the prov- 
ing of an alibi, the ever ready weapon of the society 
in clearing its members when charged with crime, com- 
paratively an easy matter. 

McParlan visited the different towns, especially the 
strongholds of the Mollies, throughout the anthracite 
region and laid carefully prepared plans for his peril- 
ous work. He kept in almost daily communication 
with Mr. Gowan at Philadelphia, who was one of the 
few that knew him in his true character. The detective 
exhibited industry, perseverance and determination to 
a remarkable degree in the midst of surroundings that 
might well have appalled the stoutest heart. His find- 
ings were preserved with the greatest secrecy until 
such time as the whole gruesome story could be laid 
before the world from the records of the courts. This 
occurred in due time, and he appeared as the principal 
witness against a number of murderers who were con- 
victed on his testimony and that of corroborating wit- 
nesses. By three years of unremitting industry, dur- 
ing which time he was compelled to resort to treach- 
ery, deceit and double dealing, he succeeded in secur- 
ing many confidences and even the inmost secrets of 
those whose lives he sought, and ultimately secured at 
the bar of justice. 

He assumed to be one of the worst among the class 
of outlaws with whom he was compelled to associate, 
but himself always carefully refrained from the actual 
commission of crime. He accounted for his ability to 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 133 

live without work by telling various plausible stories, 
pretending that he was a pensioner of the government 
and a dealer in counterfeit money, among other things. 

McParlan was very popular among the Mollies, who 
seemed to esteem him all the more because he appeared 
to be a thorough desperado and a polished rogue. 

As to whether or not he was justified in pursuing the 
course that he did, let casuists argue and theorists 
quibble ; there can be no question concerning the recti- 
tude of his conduct in the minds of practical men, when 
all of the circumstances under which he labored are 
recalled. 

One of McParlan 's co-workers during a part of his 
stay in the coal regions was Captain Robert Linden, 
ostensibly a leader of the coal and iron police, but also 
a Pinkerton detective. Together they were successful 
in thwarting many a deep laid scheme for the destruc- 
tion of life and property. 

Among the first of the outrages attended by fatal 
results within the limits of Carbon county, and charged 
to the Mollie Maguires, was the murder of George K. 
Smith, at Audenried, on the evening of November 5, 
1863. 

Mr. Smith was a member of the firm of George K. 
Smith and Company, operating the mines of the New 
York and Lehigh Coal Company at Yorktown. 

He had given the enrolling officers a list containing 
the names of the men employed at the mines operated 
by the firm of which he was a member, and some of 
their number had been drafted for service in the army. 
This circumstance is said to have led to his assassina- 
tion. He was assailed by a large body of heavily 
armed men in his own dwelling and was quickly dis- 
patched in the presence of his terror-stricken family. 



134 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, 

Although several persons were under the ban of sus- 
picion, and were supposed to have participated in the 
affair, it was impossible, until the lapse of many 
years, to obtain any information as to the absolute 
guilt of the mistrusted parties. Some of these were 
then arrested and placed in jail at Mauch Chunk, but 
were forcibly rescued a short time thereafter, at night, 
by their associates in the order. 

Another Carbon county affair which was charged to 
the account of the Mollies, and which aroused general 
indignation, was the attack made upon Superintendent 
Hendrix, of the Buck Mountain Coal Company. He 
was in his room at the house where he boarded in the 
village of Clifton, in company with his wife, when, on 
the evening of June 11, 1869, he was brutally assaulted 
and beaten to the verge of death. 

Over two hundred men joined in the attack, sur- 
rounding the house and taking it by storm. The inter- 
position of Mrs. Hendrix, who threw herself between 
her husband and his assailants, taking many kicks and 
blows that were intended for him, was all that saved 
him from death. Mr. Hendrix was beaten with black- 
jacks, pistol butts and clubs, besides receiving two 
stabs from a knife. 

After making a fruitless search for another intended 
victim who boarded with James Harvey, a neighbor of 
Mr. Hendrix, the band of outlaws then moved in a body 
to Eckly, a short distance beyond, in Luzerne county. 

There they proceeded to square some grudge they 
had against Captain P. F. McGinley. 

He bore the reputation of being a fearless, resolute 
man, and armed with a magazine rifle, he awaited their 
onslaught in a second story room of his home. 

Breaking in the front door, the Mollies seized the 
captain's father and used him as a shield while ad- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 135 

vancing upstairs to attack the son, the old man plead- 
ing piteously for his life in the meantime. 

The captain managed to get in one shot, which, as 
was subsequently learned, was not without effect, but 
was soon overpowered and clubbed into insensibility. 
Years afterwards it was learned that the perpetra- 
tors of these outrages came principally from Yorktown 
and Audenried, ten miles away. 

The unprovoked and cold-blooded murder of Mor- 
gan Powell, assistant superintendent of the Lehigh 
Coal and Navigation Company, at Summit Hill, on the 
evening of December 2, 1871, crowning, as it did, so 
many previous and similar events, greatly exasperated 
the law-abiding people of the coal region. 

The murder was committed at about seven o'clock, 
on the street, not more than a few paces from the store 
of Henry Williamson, which place Powell had left only 
a moment before to go to the office of William Zehner, 
the general superintendent of the company. 

It appears that one of a group of three men, who 
had been seen by various people waiting near the store, 
drew close to Mr. Powell from the rear, and fired a 
pistol shot into the left breast of his innocent victim, 
leaning over the shoulder of Powell to accomplish his 
deadly purpose. 

Who it was that had killed him, no one could tell. 
The three men who had been seen together, and one of 
whom did the shooting, were all strangers, and easily 
effected their escape. Patrick Kildea, who was 
thought to resemble one of their number, was taken 
into custody and tried for the crime, but was acquitted 
for lack of evidence. 

Emboldened by their success in so many previous 
outrages, the Mollies were becoming reckless, and on 
the morning of September 3, 1875, enacted a tragedy 



136 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

that was destined to lead to the discovery, conviction 
and execution of the authors of many deeds of blood. 

At the time spoken of, John P. Jones, a mine fore- 
man at Lansford, spoke what proved to be his eternal 
farewell to his wife and seven children, and started 
toward the colliery where he was employed. He fol- 
lowed a path that led from Storm Hill to the depot in 
Lansford, and which he had been repeatedly urged not 
to take, because it was known that he was marked for 
death by the Mollies. 

As he proceeded leisurely on his way, probably hav- 
ing no premonition of impending evil, he was over- 
taken by two men, who were running as if in a hurry 
to reach a train which had just arrived at the depot. 
They halted when close to him, drew their pistols and 
fired upon the luckless and unsuspecting man with 
deadly effect. 

The victim made an attempt to ward off his assail- 
ants with his tin dinner pail, and as he did so received 
another bullet from the pistol of one of the murderers. 
Throwing up his hands, with a cry of mortal agony, he 
fell upon his face, while two more leaden messengers 
of death were fired in quick succession into his already 
bullet-riddled body. 

This tragic event occurred in broad daylight and in 
the sight of a crowd of people. 

The reports of the pistols brought many workmen 
to the scene. 

The assassins had been seen retreating rapidly over 
the hill, and pursuit was soon given. When the hour 
of noon arrived, their capture had been effected. The 
men were identified as Michael J. Doyle and Edward 
Kelly, of Mount Laffa, Schuylkill county; and James 
Kerrigan, bodymaster of the Tamaqua division of the 



I 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 137 

Mollies. All of them were securely placed in jail at 
Mauch Chunk. 

The men were taken while resting beneath the shade 
of a tree beside a spring, near Tamaqua. Kelly and 
Doyle were recognized as having done the shooting, 
while Kerrigan had accompanied them, but had re- 
mained at a safe distance while the murder was being 
executed. 

No arms were found about their persons, but a little 
later some officers, while making a search unearthed 
three pistols and a heavy club, secreted under the trees 
in the leaves near the spring where the men were taken 
prisoners. One of these pistols was that known as the 
"Roarty Pistol," highly prized by the Mollies, and 
named after its owner, James Roarty, bodymaster of 
the Coal Dale division of the society. It was termed 
by them ''the lucky pistol" and had been used at the 
murder of Morgan Powell, Policeman B. F. Yost, of 
Tamaqua, and others. 

The arrest of Doyle, Kerrigan and Kelly was a stun- 
ning blow to the Mollies, who realized that the most 
desperate exertions would be necessary to save their 
three comrades from the gallows and their order from 
exposure and annihilation. 

A large sum of money was soon raised and the best 
lawyers to be had were retained to defend the pris- 
oners. 

John W. Ryan, Linn Bartholomew, and J. B. Riley, 
all of the Schuylkill county bar, and E. M. Mulhearn 
and Daniel Kalbfus, of Mauch Chunk, appeared on 
behalf of the defense when the prisoners were ar- 
raigned at the October term of the Carbon county 
court. 

To match this array of legal talent, the coal and rail- 
road companies of this section of the anthracite region, 



138 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

all of whom were directly and deeply concerned in the 
outcome of the case, authorized their attorneys to as- 
sist the district attorney, E. R. Siewers, in the prosecu- 
tion. Hon. F. W. Hughes, appeared for the Philadel- 
phia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, General 
Charles Albright, for the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre 
Coal Company, and Hon. Allen Craig for the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad Company. 

Kelly, Doyle, and Kerrigan were jointly put on trial, 
entering the usual plea of "not guilty," and demand- 
ing a severance, the case going over to the January 
term of court. 

In its far-reaching consequences to human life and 
property, together with the general security and wel- 
fare of society, this trial may justly be regarded as the 
most momentuous in the annals of the commonwealth. 

The trial was begun on the eighteenth of January 
before Judge Samuel S. Dreher. On the twenty-first 
of January a juiy had been obtained, consisting of 
William Bloss, Jonas Beck, Joel Strohl, Daniel Boyer, 
Jr., Daniel Remaly, Abraham Henry, Levi West, Levi 
Straub, Henry Long, Peter Cushman, Thomas A. Wil- 
liams, and Drake H. Liong. 

Michael Doyle was the first to be placed on trial, and, 
as was to be expected, the leaders of the Mollies made 
great efforts to prove that not one of the three men 
charged with the killing of Jones could possibly have 
been present when the crime was committed, as they 
had really been elsewhere at that time. But through 
the effective work of McParlan and other detectives, 
their efforts proved abortive and unavailing. 

McParlan, in particular, rendered great services to 
the lawyers who represented the commonwealth in 
this important trial. Mingling freely with the Mollies, 
and looked upon by the members of the society, as well 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 139 

as those outside the organization, as one of their lead- 
ers, he was admitted to all their councils, even to the 
consultations of their attorneys. All that he thus 
learned he secretly but promptly communicated to the 
other side. 

The trial had not far progressed before it became 
evident to the attorneys for the defense, as well as to 
the assembled Mollies, that they were being betrayed 
by some one whom they had thus far trusted. 

McParlan's reputation as a wicked Mollie was so 
well established, and so cleverly did he play his part, 
that he was not at first suspected. 

It was finally thought that the traitor must be one 
of the prisoners on trial, and suspicion centered upon 
Kerrigan. He was not slow in detecting that he was 
being shvmned, and that he was no longer trusted. 
This change of attitude towai-d him on the part of his 
old associates in crime, no doubt, influenced him to a 
great extent in making up his mind to give state's evi- 
dence, and, by so doing, purchase immunity for him- 
self at the expense of his self-respect and his fellow 
criminals. 

He apprised the district attorney of the fact that he 
wished to see him for the purpose of making a con- 
fession. After due consideration, he was accepted and 
placed upon the witness stand. 

Kerrigan laid bare all the circumstances and details 
connected with the assassination of John P. Jones, in- 
forming the court that the deed was committed at the 
behest of Alexander Campbell, bodymaster of the Sum- 
mit Hill division of the Mollies. The grievance against 
Jones was that he had blacklisted some men who were 
members of the society. 

Kerrigan's confession having been corroborated, in 
every important particular, by the evidence of the 



140 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

other witnesses for the commonwealth, the jury, on the 
first of the ensuing February, returned a verdict of 
' ' guilty of murder in the first degree. ' ' 

After this, Mrs. Kerrigan, who had interested her- 
self in trying to secure the release of her husband, said 
he might hang, and further, that she would not raise 
her hand to save him. Henceforth he was popularly 
known as "Jimmy The Squealer," and received, as 
he, no doubt, merited, the maledictions of all true Mol- 
lies. 

During the course of the trial, McParlan made the 
acquaintance of a man named Durkin, who told him he 
was ready, in the event of a verdict unfavorable to the 
Mollies, to blow up the court house, together with the 
judges, jurymen, attorneys, officials, and innocent 
spectators, boasting that he had a can of nitrogly- 
cerine safey hidden away near by for the purpose. 

McParlan responded by telling the desperado that 
he would be very foolish to attempt to put such a plot 
into execution, because he would be almost certain to 
be captured and strung up by the vigilance committee 
to the nearest tree. 

Probably this had the desired effect of frightening 
the reckless fellow, and he wisely decided to abandon 
the idea. 

On the twenty-second of February, the Court sen- 
tenced Michael Doyle to death. This was noteworthy 
as the earliest conviction and disposal of a real MoUie 
Maguire in Pennsylvania, and the news spread rapidly, 
far and wide, striking terror and dismay into the ranks 
of the organization. During the progress of the trial 
the Mollies had been bold and defiant, and many of 
their principal men were on the spot, expecting as they 
expected to live, to witness the release of the defend- 
ant. How shocking the result was to their nerves and 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 141 

to their general composure, McParlan was among the 
first to learn. 

He afterwards declared that the unforeseen result 
had come upon the order like an earthquake in a quiet 
village. 

The case of Michael Doyle having been disposed of, 
Edward Kelly was next placed at the bar before Judge 
Dreher. While his defense was not allowed to go by 
default, the most strenuous efforts being made on his 
behalf, he was also found guilty of murder in the first 
degree. He then made a voluntary confession, clearly 
showing that he had not been wrongfully charged or 
convicted, and substantiating all that Kerrigan had 
said. 

Kelly explained that he did not ask for mercy nor 
expect it, but, before dying, desired to purge himself 
of his crime. 

From facts brought to light during the trial of 
Doyle, Alexander Campbell was taken into custody 
and lodged in jail at Mauch Chunk. Thomas Duffy, 
James Boyle, Hugh McGeehan, James Carroll and 
James Roarty were also arrested and placed in the 
Schuylkill county jail, charged with the murder of 
Policeman Benjamin F. Yost, of Tamaqua, on the 
morning of July G, 1875. 

The majority of these men were residents of Carbon 
county. 

Campbell was arrigned for trial, charged with the 
murder of John P. Jones, June 20, 1876. It was not 
claimed, strictly, that he had taken any direct part in 
the murder, but that he had arranged for others to per- 
form the deed. One of the jurors sickened and died 
during the progress of the case, making a new trial 
necessary. Campbell was eventually found guilty of 
murder in the first degree as an "accessory before 



242 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

the fact." His conviction on such grounds contained 
infinite possibilities for trouble of the gravest kind, 
from the standpoint of the Mollie Maguires, many of 
whom, while not murderers, in the popularly accepted 
sense of the term, were equally as guilty as he. 

Subsequent to the conclusion of Campbell's trial, a 
number of his friends within the organization, who had 
been witnesses in the case, and had perjured them- 
selves in an effort to secure his release, were arrested 
on that charge and held for trial. 

This, again, was a proceeding that appeared to have 
been wholly unexpected by the Mollies, who had been 
accustomed to play fast and loose with the truth when- 
ever the occasion demanded. 

Meanwhile, the Mollies were not satisfied that all of 
the evidence upon which their partners in crime were 
being convicted had been furnished by Kerrigan. 

Suspicion soon rested upon McParlan, and his as- 
sassination was decided upon, as a matter of self -pro- 
tection, revenge, and of general policy. By his native 
shrewdness and great daring he frustrated a number 
of well-laid plans that had been made to do away with 
him. He was also largely indebted for his life to the 
unwavering loyalty and continued confidence of an old 
friend in the order, Frank McAndrew, bodymaster of 
the Shenandoah lodge, to which McParlan belonged. 

McAndrew generoush^ protected him at the immi- 
nent peril of his own life, believing him to be inno- 
cent of the charge of double-dealing. The time had 
come, however, for the detective to throw off his dis- 
guise, because the part which he had so successfully 
played for three years was no longer possible for him. 

Accordingly he appeared on the witness stand, and 
the evidence he there gave resulted in the arrest and 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 143 

conviction of numerous criminals who could not other- 
wise have been reached by the arm of the law. His 
nature naturally revolted at the idea of facing his late 
associates in the order in his true colors, and it galled 
him to be compelled to move about the streets of 
Mauch Chunk, Pottsville and the other places, where 
he gave testimony, accompanied by an armed escort. 
The recital of his experiences when assuming to be a 
Mollie, his almost miraculous escapes, and the tales of 
horror which he told have, perhaps, never been equalled 
in the history of American jurisprudence. 

At the October term of court at Mauch Chunk, in 
3876, the cases of John Donahue, Thomas P. Fisher, 
Patrick McKenna, and Alexander Campbell, charged 
with the murder of Morgan Powell at Summit Hill, five 
years earlier, were called. 

The men demanded separate trials, and the common- 
wealth chose first to try John (Yellow Jack) Donahue. 

It was clearly proven that on the request of Alex- 
ander Campbell, with a promise of one hundred dollars 
for the service, Donahue had selected his men at Tus- 
carora, and, assuming their leadership, had proceeded 
to Tamaqua, where they met Cornelius McHugh, who 
conducted them to Summit Hill, where they were 
joined by Fisher and McKenna. They had then waited 
for their intended victim near the store of Captain 
Williamson, where Powell was shot by Donahue. 

Donahue was convicted and sentenced. At the Jan- 
uary term of court, in 1877, Campbell, who was already 
under sentence of death for the murder of John P. 
Jones, and in whose case an appeal had been taken to 
the Supreme Court, was placed on trial for the murder 
of Morgan Powell. 

Being again convicted, he smilingly inquired 
whether it was proposed that he be hung twice. 



144 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

McKenna and Fisher were tried together. The 
former was found guilty of murder in the second de- 
gree, while the latter was convicted of murder in the 
first degree. 

Governor Hartranft having signed their death war- 
rants, Doyle, Kelly, Campbell, and Donahue were exe- 
cuted together in June, 1877, by Sheriff Eaudenbush at 
Mauch Chunk. Campbell stoutly protested his inno- 
cence to the last, and popular tradition has it that 
before being dragged to the scaffold, he placed the 
print of his right hand upon the damp wall of his cell, 
which was on the first floor of the jail, vowing, as he 
did so, that it should remain as a sign of his unjust exe- 
cution. A figure resembling the large hand of a man, 
with fingers and palm outstretched, is to this day 
shown to curious visitors at the sombre jail, within this 
cell, while the story of its origin is retold in hushed, 
sepulchral tones. 

On the same day that the four Mollies were executed 
at Mauch Chunk, six paid the extreme penalty for their 
crimes at Pottsville. 

Two accessories before the fact in the killing of 
Morgan Powell were tried at Mauch Chunk, and con- 
victed of murder in the second degree. They, with 
McKenna, were sent to the penitentiary, McKenna for 
nine years, and the other two for four and five years 
respectively. 

A number of the Mollies who had turned state's evi- 
dence during these trials had furnished information 
regarding the idenity of the murderers of George K. 
Smith, of Audenried. Most of the guilty parties were 
fugitives from justice. 

One of their number, however, James McDaniels, 
known as the ''hairy man," was arrested in Wiscon- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 145 

sin, brought to Mauch Chunk, tried, convicted and exe- 
cuted. 

William Sharp, also accused of complicity in the 
murder of Smith, was found guilty and hanged, as 
was Fisher, in whose behalf great but unavailing 
efforts were made by his counsel and friends for a 
commutation of sentence. 

James Kerrigan, ''The Squealer," was given his 
liberty, in consideration of the service he had rendered 
the state. Knowing that his life would be sought by 
those whom he had betrayed, he mysteriously disap- 
peared, and it is said that he died a natural death a 
few years ago in Virginia. 

The constant strain, worry, and excitement attend- 
ant, upon the Mollie Maguire trials cost Daniel Kalb- 
fuss, one of the leading lawyers for the defense, his 
life. His mind gave way, and he died soon thereafter. 

During the course of their long career of violence 
and carnage, the Mollies committed more than one hun- 
dred murders, not to mention the thousands of lesser 
crimes and misdemeanors of which they were the au- 
thors. 

Smarting under the stigma which the conduct of this 
band of outlaws had brought upon the fair fame of 
their honored organization, the national convention of 
the Ancient Order of Hibernians, held at New York, in 
1877, denounced the Mollie Maguires in the most un- 
measured terms. 

Their membership in the fraternity was also denied, 
and with a view to protecting the reputation of the as- 
sociation, the counties of Carbon, Luzerne, Schuylkill, 
Columbia, and Northumberland were excluded, for the 
time being, from participation in the affairs of the 
order. 



146 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

The Mollies were also scathingly denounced in addi- 
tion to being excommunicated, by the leading prelates 
of the Roman Catholic Church, and by the Pope him- 
self. 

Many persons throughout the coal region who have 
scarcely passed beyond the bourne of middle age re- 
member well the reign of the Mollies. But time works 
great changes within comparatively short periods in 
our country, and in the broader, better light of to-day, 
the hates and prejudices engendered during the night- 
mare that is past are for the most part entirely for- 
given and forgotten. 



CHAPTER XL 

STRIKES AND LABOR DIFFICULTIES. 

It is to be doubted if any other industry of equal 
magnitude in the United States has suffered so much 
from the disputes between capital and labor as the 
anthracite coal industry. 

For more than sixty years the conduct of this in- 
dustry has been characterized by innumerable bicker- 
ings, suspensions, lockouts and strikes, with their con- 
comitants of bitter feeling, suffering and pecuniary 
loss, often accompanied by scenes of violence and 
bloodshed. 

It is only within recent years that the warring in- 
terests have been drawn closer together and that, to a 
large degree, stability and security have been attained. 

The first attempt at organizing the miners of the 
anthracite fields was made under the leadership of 
John Bates, an Englishman, in 1849. The union then 
formed sought to improve the conditions of the miners 
by calling a strike, which was confined almost wholly 
to Schuylkill county. In this strike, among the first of 
a general nature to occur in America, the miners were 
defeated, and soon after its termination. Bates, who 
had become an object of suspicion to his fellow work- 
ers, disappeared, carrying with him the funds of the 
association. 

Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that 
the union of which he had been the head quickly dis- 
integrated. 

From this time forth, petty labor troubles of local 
importance only continued to crop out in various parts 
of the region until the Civil War was in progress, when 

147 



148 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

the price of coal rose in Philadelphia from two dollars 
and seventy-eight cents a ton until it finally com- 
manded nearly eleven dollars a ton. So many men 
were needed for military and naval duties that labor 
became scarce and wages correspondingly higher. It 
was no uncommon thing during this period of high 
prices for competent miners to earn five hundred dol- 
lars a month, and they enjoyed the greatest prosperity 
in the history of the industry. 

But when the war ended, labor again rushed into the 
coal fields, the over-supply bringing wages down from 
their high former level. 

Thereupon the miners organized to resist this re- 
duction, brought about by the law of supply and de- 
mand; but they failed, although several strikes were 
declared. 

Appreciating the necessity of having the workmen 
knitted together in one strong union in order to cope 
successfully with the power of organized wealth, the 
labor leaders of the anthracite region, during the sum- 
mer of 1868, formed the Workingmen's Benevolent As- 
sociation, the first president and controlling spirit of 
which was John Siney. 

He was rather a large man, with a determined face 
and bearing. While being uneducated in the commonly 
accepted sense of the term, he was, nevertheless, 
shrewd and able, besides being thoroughly honest and 
loyal. 

By his straightforward methods and his direct, 
simple rhetoric he frequently put Franklin B. Gowan, 
the brilliant head of the Philadelphia and Reading 
coal and railway interests, on the defensive. 

Before many months the Workingmen's Benevolent 
Association was strongly intrenched in the Lehigh 
and Schuylkill regions, virtually controlling the situa- 
tion in these fields. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 149 

The building up of the organization was accom- 
plished, however, by a constant succession of local 
strikes, parleying with operators, temporary resump- 
tion of work, and further strikes. 

But, while the Lehigh and Schuylkill regions were 
tied up hard and fast, the mines of the Wyoming re- 
gion were being worked day and night, supplying the 
demand for anthracite. 

So Siney's men marched across country to Wilkes- 
Barre and persuaded the miners there to go on strike. 
In this they were so far successful that the operators 
of that section agreed to an eight-hour working day, 
while those of the lower fields granted a slight increase 
in wages. 

During the summer of 1869, the union ordered a gen- 
eral suspension to enforce the demand for a sliding 
scale of wages, based upon the varying prices of coal at 
cetain points of shipment and delivery. 

After months of idleness, the men gained their point, 
and operations were resumed. 

Everybody now hoped for a year of peace and work 
and wages ; but, early in 1870, the Schuylkill operators 
announced a reduction in wages; the union resisted, 
and ordered another strike, which was declared off in 
August as the result of a compromise. 

About this time, many of he independent operators 
suffering, from the losses entailed by these conflicts, 
together with the discriminations and exactions to 
which they were subjected by the transportation inter- 
ests, were crushed, and, to save themselves from utter 
ruin were forced to turn their properties over to the 
control of a few great corporations, which thereby 
grew in strength and power. 

On January 10, 1871, a general strike was ordered, 
continuing until August, and shutting down practically 



150 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

every anthracite mine. It was necessary to put troops 
in the field to suppress rioting and terrorism, and in 
conflict with them several strikers were killed. The 
union was utterly defeated, while the men gladly went 
back to work on terms laid down by their employers. 

Between the strike of 1871 and that of 1875, there 
was no general suspension of work, although local 
troubles were constantly coming up to be discussed, 
debated, and in some manner adjusted. 

The conflict of 1875 is generally referred to as the 
''Long Strike," and with its adver&e termination at 
the end of five months, what remained of the power of 
the Workingmen's Benevolent Association was com- 
pletely broken. 

During the continuance of the great railroad strike 
of 1877, there was a long period of enforced idleness 
in the coal regions, owing to the lack of facilities for 
transportation. This resulted in much want and suf- 
fering among the miners and their families. 

For the span of sixty years, from the beginning of 
the coal trade, in 1820, to 1880, the anthracite industry 
was dominated almost wholly by native Americans and 
by the older immigrant nationalities, the Irish, Eng- 
lish, Germans, Scotch and Welsh. 

But toward the close of this era, if one with an eye 
to racial characteristics had stationed himself at some 
high point overlooking the lower or Schuylkill section, 
he would have seen trinkling into the valleys the begin- 
nings of a newer immigration stream, and one that in 
later years became so large as to be properly termed 
an inundation. These were the first arrivals of the 
Slavic and Italian nationalities. 

Quietly and peaceably they came, and with ever in- 
creasing numbers, gradually spreading over the whole 
anthracite region, until, with the lapse of a few de- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 151 

cades, they had largely supplanted the English speak- 
ing miners. 

Their presence soon wrought important and far- 
reaching effects in every phase of the life of the coal 
region. Coming at a time when the English-speaking 
miners were disorganized and to a large extent de- 
moralized as result of the reverses they had sustained 
in their efforts to wrest better terms of employment 
from the operators, the newcomers served to further 
depress the conditions of labor and to reduce the stand- 
ards of living. 

Notwithstanding the apparent hopelessness of the 
situation that now confronted the miners, the cause of 
labor was not without its champions, chief among 
whom were those of Irish nationality. 

Always the first to resent injustice or oppression, the 
Irish in the anthracite region, manifesting a total dis- 
regard of personal consequences, have from the begin- 
ning been in the forefront of every movement calcu- 
lated to advance their own interests and those of their 
fellow-workers. 

It was in 1884 that the Miners ' and Laborers ' Amal- 
gamated Association was organized, and three years 
later its membership amounted to about thirty thou- 
sand. 

During these years, too, the organizers of the 
Knights of Labor were actively at work in the anthra- 
cite region, and in 1887 the two associations became 
one in membership. A demand was then made for an 
increase in wages, which was refused by the operators, 
who also declined to submit the matter to arbitration. 

This resulted in the declaration of a strike, on Sep- 
tember 10, 1887, and the closing down of all the mines 
of the Lehigh region. 



152 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Temporary concessions were, however, made to the 
miners of the Schuylkill region. Upon the withdrawal 
of these concessions, on January 1, 1888, they, too, 
joined in the strike. 

Meanwhile, the mines of the Wyoming field, which 
remained in operation, supplied the demand for coal. 
During the long, gloomy winter the men on strike 
fought heroically against want and the power of the 
operators ; but their fight was fruitless. 

With the coming of spring, after six months of idle- 
ness, they were compelled to acknowledge their de- 
feat and return to work. The adverse result of the 
conflict sounded the death-knell of the Knights of 
Labor in this portion of Pennsylvania. 

After nine years of comparative peace, unbroken by 
any general strike, although punctuated with unnum- 
bered disputes and local difficulties, the strike of 1897 
broke out. It began at the colleries of the Lehigh and 
Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, in Banks township, 
quickly spreading to other portions of the nearby re- 
gion. An increase in wages and various other conces- 
dons were demanded. 

Among the principal strikers now were those classes 
of foreigners who in previous years had been im- 
ported to the region by the operators themselves for 
the express purpose of enabling them to control the 
labor situation. 

Marching in large numbers from colliery to colliery, 
they coaxed or coerced as many workers as possible 
into joining their ranks. 

In September, toward the end of the struggle, which 
was foredoomed to failure from its inception, owing to 
the lack of organization among the men, a band of 
marching miners was fired upon at Lattimer by the 
sheriff of Luzerne county and his deputies. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 153 

More than a score of foreigners were killed, while 
over forty were wounded. This unfortunate affair led 
to the calling out of the National Guard, and soon 
thereafter work was resumed at the mines. 

Thus every effort which had been made during the 
course of a generation to permanently organize the 
anthracite mine workers and to ameliorate their lot 
had met with disaster. 

Each defeat left them a little more hopeless, and the 
conditions under which they lived and labored grew 
steadily worse. 

When, therefore, the region was first visited by the 
organizers of the United Mine Workers of America, it 
is little wonder that many miners grown old in the 
anthracite fields gloomily shook their heads, predicting 
that the efforts of the organizers would be of no avail. 

But, in 1900, flushed with a great victory in the bitu- 
minous fields, and guided by its young and able leader, 
John Mitchell, this union, which then had a member- 
ship of but eight thousand in the anthracite region de- 
clared a general strike. This action, however, was not 
taken until the failure of every peaceable effort on the 
part of the men to gain some concessions from the 
operators. 

While the union was not numerically strong, most of 
the miners were in sympathy with the movement which 
had been inaugurated, and nearly one hundred thou- 
sand workers responded to its call on the first day of 
the strike. Within two weeks, fully ninety per cent, of 
the mine workers in the entire region were idle. 

Among those who preferred to remain at work were 
the majority of the employes of the Lehigh Coal and 
Navigation Company. 

And, in candor, it must be said that to a large ex- 
tent they were justified, because they were not being 



154 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

exploited and oppressed as were the most of their fel- 
low workers in other portions of the anthracite fields. 

Their course in remaining at work, however, was not 
satisfactory to the men who were on strike. During 
the month of September, with a view to making the tie- 
up more complete, several thousand miners from the 
Hazleton district invaded the Panther Creek and Nes- 
quehoning Valleys by night, in order to be in a posi- 
tion when morning should come, to dissuade the men 
from going to their employment. 

One party, led by "Mother" Jones, a noted agitator, 
and many other women in carriages, proceeded by way 
of Tamaqua, while another division crossed the Broad 
mountain to Nesquehoning. 

The last named contingent succeeded in closing down 
the colliery at Nesquehoning for a single day. But the 
host following "Mother" Jones was met west of Coal- 
dale by the state soldiery under Colonel O'Neil, and 
was turned back at the point of the bayonet, bloodshed 
being narrowly averted. The expedition, therefore, 
failed of its object. 

The strike occurring at the height of a presidential 
campaign, strong political pressure was brought to 
bear on the operators in favor of a speedy settlement. 

This influence, together with a growing scarcity of 
coal and the weight of public opinion, which was on 
the side of the miners, finally caused the operators to 
yield, granting an increase in wages of ten per cent., 
besides agreeing to reduce the price of powder, to pay 
wages semi-monthly in cash and to adjust some of the 
other grievances complained of by their employes. 

Work was resumed on October 29 after an idleness 
of six weeks. 

While resulting in a victory for the men, the strike 
of 1900 did not solve the problem of the proper rela- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. I55 

tion of labor and capital in the coal fields. It was felt 
on both sides that the outcome was not conclusive, and 
preparations were begun for the further struggle 
which was certain to come. 

The agrressive policy of the operators was evident 
from the start. Immediately after the strike, stock- 
ades were built about many of the mines, depots were 
established for the storage of coal, and washeries were 
opened in many places. On the other hand, the men 
quickly built up a compact and formidable organiza- 
tion and began the accumulation of a war fund. 

The settlement which had been reached was guar- 
anteed to remain effective only until April, 1901. 

It was then renewed by mutual consent for another 
year. 

At the expiration of this period, the miners, through 
their representatives, the officials of the union, de- 
manded further concessions in the form of increased 
wages, the recognition of their union, and a shorter 
work day, together with the payment for coal by weight 
wherever practicable. 

The absolute refusal of all these demands precipi- 
tated the greatest strike in the annals of American in 
dustry, entailing enormous financial losses, perma- 
nently increasing the price of coal, and inflicting many 
hardships upon the miners and the general public. 

On May 15, 1902, at a signal, nearly one hundred and 
fifty thousand workers dropped their tools, and for 
more than five months the conflict raged. Both sides 
fought with unflinching determination, the foreign ele- 
ment, as in the two previous strikes being particularly 
unyielding. 

The operators were led by George F. Baer, while the 
cause of the miners was again most ably and fairly 
championed by John Mitchell. 



156 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Before the restoration of peace, the entire National 
Guard of Pennsylvania was stationed in the coal fields. 

The warring forces were finally brought together 
through the intervention of President Eoosevelt, while 
the questions at issue were adjusted by the Anthracite 
Strike Commission, by him appointed. 

Under the award of this body the miners gained a 
number of important concessions, and the Anthracite 
Conciliation Board which is still in existence, and 
which has amicably disposed of many difficulties be- 
tween the miners and the operators, was established. 

In comparison with the chaos and warfare of former 
years, the anthracite region has enjoyed peace and 
prosperity since 1902. 

The award of the strike commission remained oper- 
ative until April 1, 1906, and was twice renewed for a 
period of three years, though not without a temporary 
suspension of work on each occasion. 

In 1912, the representatives of the miners and the 
operators met on the friendliest of terms, and it was 
apparent that hostility on the part of the latter toward 
the union had practically died out. 

Operations at the mines were suspended for nearly 
two months, however, pending the formation of a new 
agreement, under the terms of which the union was 
partially recognized for the first time. The men also 
received an increase in wages, besides gaining a num- 
ber of other points for which they had contended. The 
duration of this agreement is fixed at four years. 



CHAPTER XII. 

STEAM AND ELECTRIC EAILEOABS. 

The first railroad in Carbon county, and the first of 
any importance in the United States, was the Switch- 
back, extending from Mauch Chunk to Summit Hill. 
As is well known, this was built as a gravity road, and 
is still in existence. 

The Beaver Meadow Railroad was the first within 
the limits of the county employing steam as' motive 
power. It is now a part of the Lehigh Valley system. 
The Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company was 
incorporated on April 13, 1830. 

According to the provisions of its charter, the com- 
pany was empowered to build a railroad from the 
Beaver Meadow Mines, in what is now Banks township, 
to the Lehigh river, at, or near, Mauch Chunk, a dis- 
tance of about twenty miles. 

Various difficulties beset the projectors of the enter- 
prise, chief of which appears to have been their own 
lack of confidence in the feasibility of the undertaking. 

It was not until 1833 that a definite start was made. 

Canvass White, who had been one of the principal 
engineers in the building of the Erie Canal, and Ario 
Pardee, later a millionaire coal operator of Hazleton, 
surveyed the route, which followed the windings of 
Beaver, Hazle and Quakake creeks to the Lehigh. 

Trouble with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- 
pany concerning tolls on the canal led to the determina- 
tion on the part of those building the railroad to ex- 
tend the line to Easton. The tracks had already been 

157 



158 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

laid as far as Parryville when an agreement was 
reached. 

The railroad was opened for transportation in the 
fall of 1836, and Parryville was made the shipping 
point. It so remained until 1841, when the memorable 
freshet carried away all the bridges from Weatherly to 
the end of the line, and Maucli Chunk became the termi- 
nus, below which the road was abandoned. 

Originally wooden rails, covered with an iron strap, 
were used, and the locomotives were of the wood-burn- 
ing type. 

In 1860 another heavy flood occurred, carrying away 
a number of bridges, together with the shops of the 
company at Weatherly and Penn Haven. 

The road gained rapidly in business, however, as the 
mines tributary to it were developed, and it grew 
steadily more prosperous until absorbed by the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad in 1866. 

The Lehigh Valley Railroad, which was the first to 
be constructed through the length of the region from 
which its name is derived, had its inception in the 
efforts of a few enterprising and far-seeing men in 
Lehigh and Northampton counties, while being brought 
to completion and successful operation principally 
through the labors and determination of Asa Packer, 
its former president and the architect of its greatness. 

A charter was secured on April 21, 1846, under the 
name of the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susque 
hanna Railroad Company. 

In May of that year the stock of the company was 
offered for subscription; but capitalists seemed to have 
little faith in the project. Although the promoters of 
the enterprise were active, it was not until August, 
1847, that enough stock had been subscribed to warrant 
a start being made. Five thousand shares had then 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 159 

been taken, on each of which an instalment of five dol- 
lars had been paid. At the first election of officers, 
held on October 21, 1847, James M. Porter was chosen 
as president. 

Little had been done beyond securing the right of 
way, when, on April 4, 1851, Asa Packer became a 
member of the board of managers. This was just sev- 
enteen days before the charter would have expired by 
limitation, and soon thereafter a mile of road-bed was 
graded near Allentown to forestall this embarrass- 
ment. In the following October Mr. Packer purchased 
nearly all the stock which had been subscribed and took 
steps to obtain the additional money required to finish 
the road, which proved to be a difficult task. 

He secured the services of Robert H. Sayre, who had 
prior to this held a responsible position with the Le- 
high Coal and Navigation Company, as chief engineer. 

In January, 1853, the name of the corporation was 
changed to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. 

The line between Easton and Allentown was finished 
and placed in operation on June 11, 1855. Two trains 
were run daily between these points from that date, and 
during the month of September the road was com- 
pleted to Mauch Chunk. 

In the begining, all the rolling stock was leased from 
the Central Railroad of New Jersey, but before the 
close of 1855 a passenger locomotive and four coaches 
were purchased. At the close of three months, re- 
ceipts from the passenger service were larger than had 
been anticipated, while the earnings from carrying 
coal and other freight were kept down from the want 
of cars. 

Headquarters were first established at Mauch 
Chunk; but in 1856 the main offices were removed to 
Philadelphia. 



160 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

During the next few years a number of advantageous 
traffic arrangements were made, adding largely to the 
prosperity of the road. 

Perhaps the most important of these was that pro- 
viding for connections with the North Penn Railroad, 
opening the way to Philadelphia. 

Notwithstanding that the company sustained heavy 
damages as a result of the great freshet of 1862, the 
career of the road was one of steady growth and ex- 
pansion, and before the close of the decade it had 
gained control of connecting roads in the Lehigh and 
Schuylkill regions and had effected an entrance to the 
Wyoming Valley, whence the line was extended north- 
ward to the state line of New York. 

In 1866, the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad was 
merged with the Lehigh Valley. This comprised the 
stretch of road from Black Creek Junction, near 
Weatherly, to Mt. Carmel, a distance of forty miles. 

That portion of the line lying in Carbon county, and 
now a part of the Mahanoy Division of the Lehigh Val- 
ley Railroad, was first graded by the Morris Canal and 
Banking Company, about 1837. The road had scarcely 
been completed and placed in operation when the com- 
pany failed, and the rails were taken up and shipped to 
Pottsville. The Quakake Valley Railroad, incorpo- 
rated in 1857, relaid the tracks during the following 
year, and the road was operated tributary to the Cata- 
wissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad for a time. Its 
name was changed to the Lehigh and Mahanoy Rail- 
road in 1861. 

The Hazleton Railroad, connecting with the line of 
the Beaver Meadow companj^ was acquired in 1868. 

A branch extending from Lizard Creek Junction to 
Pottsville was completed in 1890. The Hay's creek 
''cut-off," extending from Ashmore, near Hazleton, 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 161 

to the main line of the Lehigh Valley, below White 
Haven, was opened to traffic in 1912. 

Asa Packer remained the president of the company, 
though not continuously, until his death in 1879. He 
lived to see the Lehigh Valley become one of the fore- 
most railroads of the state, more than fulfilling his 
fondest expectations, and fully compensating him for 
the trials and discouragements which he encountered 
in its building and extension. 

Under subsequent management it was for a period 
less prosperous, but in recent years itfe' securities have 
regained favor with investors. 

The railroad to-day occupies a commanding position 
among the anthracite coal carriers, and is one of the 
leading trunk lines between New York and the Great 
Lakes. 

The Nesquehoning Valley Railroad Company, the 
line of which extends from Nesquehoning Junction, 
near Mauch Chunk, to Tamanend, Schuylkill county, 
a distance of nearly seventeen miles, was organized 
on May 14, 1861. 

This road was built principally to carry the output 
of the mines of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- 
pany, receiving the traffic which formerly passed over 
the Switchback Railroad and the gravity road from 
Nesquehoning to Mauch Chunk. 

It was subsequently merged with the Lehigh and 
Susquehanna Railroad, and is now operated by the 
Central Railroad of New Jersey. 

The immediate cause of the building of the Lehigh 
and Susquehanna Railroad was the freshet of 1862, re- 
sulting in the almost complete destruction of the Le- 
high Canal between Mauch Chunk and White Haven. 
It was generally believed that the giving way of the 
dams on this portion of the canal was largely respon- 



162 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

sible for the ravages of the flood farther down the 
valley, which led to the euactment of legislation against 
rebuilding them. 

In lieu of this right the assembly of Pennsylvania 
granted the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company a 
charter for a railroad from Maucli Chunk to White 
Haven, connecting with a road which had previously 
been built from the latter place to Wilkes-Barre. 

Later, the comj^any was authorized to build the road 
to Easton. A¥hen completed, this railroad supplanted 
the canal above Maucli Chunk, while largely reliev- 
ing its overburdened condition below that point. 

In 1871, the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad was 
leased to the Central Railroad of New Jersey, being 
still operated by the latter company on this basis. 

In 1861, a stretch of railroad was built by the Lehigh 
Coal and Navigation Company from Hanto to Ta- 
maqua. This connects with the various collieries of 
that company in the Panther Creek Valley. 

With a view to providing an independent outlet for 
its coal to th.e eastern markets, this company, in 1912, 
completed a line of railroad extending from Tamaqua 
through the Lizard Creek Valley and on to Daniel s- 
ville, Northampton county, connecting there with the 
Lehigh and New England Railroad. This latter road 
is also controlled by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 
Company. 

The Chestnut Ridge Railway, reaching from Palmer- 
ton to Kuukletowu, Monroe county, was built in 1898. 
It is a little more than ten miles in length, and is now 
owned by the New Jersey Zinc Company of Pennsyl- 
vania. 

The first electric railway in the county was built by 
the Carbon Transit Company, wTiich was incorporated 
in 1892. Its line originally extended from Mauch 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 163 

Chunk to East Mauch Chunk. In 1901, the road was 
built to the Flagstaff, and during the following year it 
was constructed to Lehighton. This company has been 
several times reorganized, and is now known as the 
Carbon Street Railway Company. 

The Lehigh Traction Company, operating a line 
which passes through Jeanesville and Audenried on its 
way between Hazleton and McAdoo, was chartered in 
1892. 

The Tamaqua and Lansf ord street railway originally 
extended from Summit Hill and Lansford to Tamaqua. 
It was built by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- 
pany. In the fall of 1902 the road was opened to 
Mauch Chunk. It is now conducted by the Eastern 
Pennsylvania Railways Company. 



BOROUGHS AND TOWNSHIPS 



CHAPTER XIII. 

BANKS TOWNSHIP. 

The earliest settlement in Banks township was made 
in that portion which was in 1897 set off to form the 
borough of Beaver Meadow. The township was con- 
tained within the territory of Lausanne until January, 
1842, when it was separately organized, being named 
in honor of Judge Banks, then on the bench of North- 
ampton county, of which Carbon formed a part until 
1843. 

The township is about ten miles in length, from east 
to west, and approximately two miles in width. Its 
territory comprises the top of the Spring mountain, 
varying between fourteen and sixteen hundred feet 
above sea level. 

Beaver creek has its source near Jeanesville, flowing 
eastwardly till it reaches Hazle creek, on the verge of 
Lausanne township. Hazle creek rises in the north- 
eastern portion of the township and flows southeast- 
wardly. The two streams meet at Hazle Creek Junc- 
tion, forming Black creek, which descends the moun- 
tainside very rapidly on its turbulent way to the Le- 
high. 

The principal railroads in the township are the 
Beaver Meadow and Hazleton divisions of the Lehigh 
Valley. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and 
the Central Railroad of New Jersey also touch the 
western portion of the township, while the line of the 
Lehigh Traction Company passes through Jeanesville, 
Yorktown and Audenried on its way between Hazleton 
and McAdoo. 

167 



158 HISTOEY OP CARBON COUNTY. 

Banks township owes its settlement and develop- 
ment wholly to the underlying coal deposits, scarcely 
any of its soil being arable. 

The mining and shipping of coal being the only in- 
dustry of importance, the township has a large foreign 
population. 

Nathan Beach, of Salem, Snyder county, found coal 
in the township in 1812. The discovery was made near 
the point where the Leviston station of the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad now stands. A mine or quarry was 
opened by Beach in 1813 where Cuyle's stripping is 
now situated. The first coal produced here was hauled 
in wagons to Berwick and Bloomsburg, where it waS' 
used for blacksmithing purposes. As the nature of 
anthracite became better understood and the demand 
increased, the product of this mine was hauled over 
the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike to the landing 
on the Lehigh, from which point it was shipped to 
Philadelphia in "arks," commanding eight dollars 
per ton. Mr. Beach, being called upon to defend the 
title to his land, in 1829, won the suit, and soon there- 
after sold five hundred acres to Judge Joseph Barnes, 
of Philadelphia. 

The Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company, 
soon after its organization, purchased two hundred 
acres of land, located where coal had been first dis- 
covered, and these workings became known as the 
Beaver Meadow Mines. This property was leased to 
A. H. VanCleve & Company in 1841, and was operated 
by that firm until 1846. William Milnes & Company 
then worked the mines for about a year. The firm of 
Hamberger & Company then leased them and continued 
operations until 1850, after which the mines were 
abandoned until 1881, when they were leased to Coxe 
Brothers & Company. The property is now controlled 
by the Lehigh Valley Coal Company. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 169 

Coleraine colliery, now owned and operated by the 
A. S. VanWickle Estate, was the second to be opened 
in the township. Operations were begun soon after 
the opening of the Beaver Meadow Railroad. The firm 
of Rich & Cleaver held the first lease. 

They were succeeded by Ratcliffe & Johnson, whose 
rights were purchased in 1862 by William Carter & 
Son. After some years, the property was sold to Wil- 
liam T. Carter, his father, the senior member of the 
firm, declining to join in the purchase because he be- 
lieved that most of the available coal had been ex- 
hausted. 

William T. Carter died in 1893, and that his faith in 
Coleraine colliery was not misplaced is attested by the 
fact that its output during the years of his ownership 
had made him a multi-millionaire. 

Upon his death the property was sold to A. S. Van- 
Wickle for a much larger sum than the elder Carter 
had considered excessive twenty-five years before. 

Mr. VanWickle was killed by the accidental dis- 
charge of a gun he was carrying, in 1898, since which 
time operations have been carried on in the name of 
the A. S. VanWickle Estate. Approximately 300,000 
tons of coal per year have been produced by this col- 
liery since 1893. The principal work now, however, 
consists in "robbing pillars." There are 366 acres in 
the tract. 

It is interesting to observe that the coal miner in 
Banks township, like the proverbial ''Star of the Em- 
pire, ' ' held his way to the westward. 

Jeanesville, the next place to be opened after Cole- 
raine, joins the VanWickle tract on the west, while 
Tresckow and Yorktown, still farther west in the town- 
ship, were develojoed in harmony with the rule that has 
been noted. 



270 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Coal was discovered in the immediate vicinity of 
Jeanesville by James D. Gallup, who was associated 
with the Beaver Meadow Railroad Company. The 
property was bought from Joseph H. Newbold, by 
Joseph Jeanes and others, of Philadelphia. The pur- 
chase price is said to have been $20,000. The original 
company let the land to William Milnes, in 1847, re- 
ceiving a royalty of twenty-five cents per ton. The col- 
liery was soon in operation, and in 1855 the royalty 
amounted to $40,000. During the time that Mr. Milnes 
operated the mines about 1,500,000 tons of coal were 
shipped. 

In 1864, Mr. Milnes' lease having expired, the Spring 
Mountain Coal Company was organized, securing con- 
trol of the property. Ten years later the Lehigh Val- 
ley Coal Company bought out the Spring Mountain 
company, and the mines, during the ensuing twenty 
years were operated under lease by J. C. Haydon and 
Francis Robinson, under the firm name of J. C. Hay- 
don & Company. Since 1894 the mines have been 
worked directly, though not continuously, by the Le- 
high Valley Coal Company. 

A large and modern breaker, handling the output 
of several nearby collieries, as well as that of the 
mines at Jeanesville, was erected in 1909. It is located 
just across the line in Luzerne county. 

It was at the Number 1 slope at Jeanesville, on Feb- 
ruary 4, 1891, that the memorable mine horror, com- 
monly known as the ''Jeanesville Disaster," occurred. 
Thirteen men were then drowned, while four others, 
after having been entombed for twenty days in this 
prison of rock and water, cut off from all communica- 
tion with the outside world, were brought out alive, in- 
voluntary heroes of this industrial tragedy. The 
stamina, fortitude, and endurance displayed by these 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 171 

men under circumstances the most discouraging, we 
may well believe, have seldom been equalled in human 
history. 

The accident was caused in unexpectedly breaking 
into an abandoned mine, where a large body of water 
had accumulated, and it was this merciless element 
that caused all the havoc and destruction. It was 
at a little past ten o'clock on the morning of the 
fatal day that a blast was fired in a ''breast" or 
chamber that was being worked by Charles Boyle and 
Patrick Coll. Coll is said to have fired the shot, al- 
though it seems that Boyle was looked upon as being 
in charge of the work, because in after years he was 
familiarly known as "Boylie Tap-the- Water. " 

After the echoes of the shot had ceased to reverber- 
ate in the gloomy caverns of the fated mine. Coll re- 
turned to the face of the chamber, and, using a bar, 
began to pry down some loose pieces of coal that were 
still hanging to the face. While so engaged he noticed 
that the face seemed to be bulging toward him, as 
though there was to be a "squeeze" or settling. Noi 
liking the looks of things, he retreated a few paces, 
calling to Boyle, as he did so, to make for a place of 
safety. In another instant, to his horror, he saw the 
whole face bristling out, and with a roar like that of a 
tornado the flood was upon him. Rushing down the 
slope with irresistible force the waters, in their mad 
career, tore out the timbers of the mine, smashed cars 
into fragments and rolled up the tracks as one would 
roll up a long strip of carpet. The rush accompany- 
ing the flood blew out every light save one, that of 
Harry Gibbon, a driver-boy of about sixteen. Boy- 
like, he had just previously pulled out the wick of his 
lamp to an inordinate length so as to create a glare 
that would outshine that of any of his fellow-workers. 



172 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

The mingled tide of air and water that swept some 
of the men to their doom in the depths of the mine 
carried others on its crest up the slope toward the 
surface. Among the latter was Harry Gibbon, and 
many of the survivors attributed their deliverance 
from death to his light, which had enabled them to 
avoid being dashed to pieces against obstructions on 
their thrilling journey up the slope. 

Some of the men, warned of their danger by the 
terrible roar of the approaching flood, escaped by 
quickly jumping into a ventilating shaft, which led 
perpendicularly to the surface. Through this well-like 
opening they climbed, hand over hand, and foot over 
foot to the top, the flesh of their arms and legs being 
painfully bruised and torn by the sharp edges of the 
rocks which formed the walls of the shaft. 

The news of the accident spread rapidly, carrying 
grief and consternation to many hearts. 

When composure had in a measure been restored, it 
was found that seventeen men were missing. It was 
not thought that any of them would be brought to the 
surface alive. Such a thing seemed impossible. How- 
ever, those in authority determined to do all in their 
power to effect the rescue of anyone who in some 
manner might have escaped immediate destruction. 
All the available pumps were worked at top speed day 
and night in the effort to empty the mine of water as 
quickly as possible. 

One by one the bloated bodies of the victims were 
recovered. At the end of twenty days thirteen had 
been brought to the surface. The mine was now 
pumped dry; but four men were still missing. Never 
dreaming that they might be alive, a rescue party, 
headed by Superintendent David MacFarlane, was 
organized on the afternoon of the twenty-third of Feb- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 173 

ruary to search for their bodies. Scenes of wild con- 
fusion and disorder met their gaze on every hand as 
they penetrated the dark recesses of the mine. Heaps 
of wreckage and debris, together with giant boulders, 
weiging from one to ten tons, obstructed their pro- 
gress. As they were making their way thus laboriously 
among the ruins, one of the men thought he heard a 
voice that seemed to proceed from the mouth of one 
not a member of his party. Feeling somewhat startled 
but yet uncertain, he ejaculated : ' ' My God, I believe 
there is a man alive down here!" All paused now, 
listening intently, and one of the party half-heartedly 
called, "hello!" "Hello," came the faint reply, and 
the men were sure that it was not an echo. "Who are 
you?" was the somewhat tremulous demand that was 
framed by the lips of the spokesman of the rescue 
party. "I am Joe Matuskowitz, " was the reply, 
spoken in broken English. "Wassil Finko, John Tom- 
askusky, and John Barno are with me. We are not 
dead, but nearly so." Words of heartfelt encourage- 
ment were spoken to the four men, and the rescue 
party was divided, some of the men going to the as- 
sistance of the helpless and well-nigh famished miners, 
while others hastened to the surface to secure medical 
aid and such nourishment and stimulants as were 
deemed fit to be given to men who had eaten scarcely 
a bite for nearly twenty days. 

The four men were lying at the highest point of the 
chamber, that had been worked by Joe Matuskowitz. 
They escaped being drowned by reason of the fact that 
the flood poured down the slope in such volume as to 
fill it completely, compressing the air in the breasts 
and gangways, and sweeping on to the depths below 
in the line of least resistance. As the mine filled up, 
the air pressure in these confined places was sufficient 
to keep out the water. 



I'J^ HISTORY Oi^^ CARBON COUNTY. 

When the accident occurred, these four men, who 
worked communicating breasts, came together here. 
All they had with them to eat was a few sandwiches, 
and after this scant supply of rations had become ex- 
hausted they were face to face with starvation. The 
mine was filled with sulphur water, but this, of course, 
was unfit for drinking purposes. 

By the rarest chance, however, a blast which had 
been fired but a few moments before the flood came, 
opened a fissure in the rocks from which a stream of 
water, pure, cold and invigorating gushed forth. Of 
this the men drank during their confinement, and upon 
this they lived. 

Under these desperate conditions they passed the 
maddening and soul-trying period that intervened be- 
tween the date of the accident and their rescue. The 
air at first was good, but later it became very un- 
wholesome, and before the rescuing party could enter 
the chamber it was necessary to brush out the "black 
damp" which, like a sinister presence, brooded there. 

When the intelligence began to be noised about the 
grief-stricken village that the men had been found 
alive in the mine, few, indeed, were ready to give 
credence to the report. So certain was everyone that 
they were dead that their graves had already been dug, 
while their coffins were waiting to receive their bodies 
at the entrance to the slope. 

As the truth began to dawn upon the people, how- 
ever, hundreds gathered in awe and reverence at the 
jiortals of the mine, and until the last of the survivors 
was brought to the surface, scenes were there enacted 
that will live as long as life shall last in the memories 
of those who witnessed them. 

It was long past midnight of the twenty-third of 
February when the work of rescue had been completed. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 175 

Then it was that sixty-five miners, most of whom had 
taken part in the rescue, filed in solemn procession be- 
fore the residence of J. C. Haydon, being dressed in 
their work clothes and bearing lighted lamps upon 
their heads. There they sang a hymn of praise with 
deep feeling and with wonderful effect. 

All of the four men recovered, thanks to their won- 
derful vitality and to the tender nursing and expert 
medical aid they received. Mrs. J. C. Haydon, wife 
of the senior member of the firm that was then operat- 
ing the mines at Jeanesville, among others, personally 
ministered to the men. It was ten days before they 
were allowed to partake of solid food. 

Joe Matuskowitz, popularly known as ''Big Joe," 
was the only one of the quartette who declined to re- 
enter the mines as a means of gaining a livelihood. 
He has since said that when he descended the mine 
on the morning of the disaster he weighed two hundred 
and twenty-five pounds ; but the terrible ordeal through 
which he passed reduced his weight to seventy-five 
pounds. He is now a prosperous contractor and 
builder at Hazleton. 

The Jeanesville horror was caused by a faulty sur- 
vey, made by the mining engineers. 

Tresckow was the next place in Banks township 
where mining was begun after the opening of the mines 
at Jeanesville. The German Pennsylvania Coal Com- 
pany began operations here in 1851. They sank a 
slope, built a breaker, and erected a tavern, store, and 
s-everal dwelling houses. After a few years the prop- 
erty came under the control of Samuel Bonnell, Jr., of 
New York city. He operated the mines for two years, 
and then sold out to the Honey Brook Coal Company, 
which was incorporated April 23, 1864. Ten years 
later, the Central Railroad of New Jersey formed the 



176 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, by which the 
Honey Brook Coal Company was then absorbed. There 
has been no change in ownership since that time. The 
coal produced at Tresckow is prepared for shipment at 
the Audenried breaker of the company. Two slopes 
are now being worked, and large improvements are 
promised for the near future. 

The Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company also 
has operations at Audenried and at Honey Brook, 
the breakers being located just across the line in 
Schuylkill county. 

The tract of two hundred and two acres on which 
the Spring Brook colliery of the Lehigh Valley Coal 
Company is now located originally belonged to Chris- 
tian Kunkle. N. P. Hosack bought the property for 
$30,000. He failed financially after a few years, and 
the New York and Lehigh Coal Company secured title 
to the land, being still the owner. 

In the summer of 1855 James Taggart secured a 
lease on the property. He sank the first slope on the 
Big Vein, and in 1856 shipped the first coal from this 
point over the Beaver Meadow Railroad. This slope 
was drowned out in 1860, remaining idle for four 
years. 

A second slope was sunk in 1858, and George K. 
Smith & Company leased the mines soon thereafter. 
Mr. Smith was assassinatel in 1863. The lease was 
continued by Thomas Hull, a member of the firm, until 
1868, when, becoming embarrassed, he was succeeded 
by A. L. Mumper & Company. Under this firm a 
breaker was erected in 1869, which was destroyed by 
fire of incendiary origin, late in 1876. The loss 
amounted to $60,000. The structure was rebuilt the 
following year. Another breaker was built in 1875. 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 177 

In 1878 a lease for fifteen years was made to Thomas 
Jolin & Company. Thomas John was killed in a run- 
away accident in 1880, and the firm was reorganized 
by George H. Myers, George John and Thomas Dough- 
erty, under the title of George H. Myers & Company. 
At the expiration of this lease the Lehigh Valley Coal 
Company began to work the mines. The coal produced 
here is prepared for shipment at Jeanesville. 

The Beaver Meadow colliery of Coxe Brothers & 
Company was opened by the firm of E. B. Ely & Com- 
pany during the early seventies. John Martyn, Sr., of 
Beaver Meadow, and the late Edwin R. Enbody, of 
Mauch Chunk, were the local men interested in this 
venture. This company built a large breaker, but was 
not very successful. After a time they closed out their 
lease to Coxe Brothers & Company, still operating the 
mines. The original breaker was torn down and has- 
been replaced by a larger and more modern structure. 
The land is owned by the Lehigh Valley Coal Com- 
pany. 

Evans' colliery, located a short distance from Beaver 
Meadow, near the Luzerne county line, was opened by 
the Evans Coal Company, headed by John D. Evans, 
of Lansford. The breaker was erected in 1889, while 
the first coal was shipped in 1890. This company was 
not successful, and for a time the colliery was at a 
standstill, the breaker having been burned down, evi- 
dently by an incendiary. 

In June, 1906, the land was leased by A. S. Van- 
Wickle for ten years, the coal being prepared for ship- 
ment at the Coleraine breaker. At the expiration of 
this lease, operations were again suspended. 

On October 27, 1906, the Evans Colliery Company, 
of which W. E. Smith is the general manager, was 
chartered, and still operates the mines. The tract on 



178 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

which the colliery is located contains 228 acres of land, 
and is owned by the heirs of A. H. Reeder, of Easton. 

This completes the list of the coal operations of 
Banks township. Different parties have expended 
time and treasure in prospecting for coal on the Pen- 
rose property, farther east in the township than any 
of the openings that have been noticed, but so far with- 
out success. 

In speaking of the towns of this division of the 
county, it has already been said that they owe their 
existence entirely to the underlying mineral wealth, 
and they came into being as the collieries on which 
they depend were developed. 

Audenried and Yorktown, adjoining each other, lie 
in the western portion of the township, and a small 
section of the former is built across the line into 
Schuylkill county. Audenried is the namesake of 
Lewis Audenried, of Philadelphia, while Yorktown is 
probably so christened in recognition of the company 
that owns the land on which it is located, — the New 
York and Lehigh Coal Company. 

The postoffice at Audenried was opened on October 
15, 1860, Samuel Martyn, a brother of John Martyn, 
Sr., of Beaver Meadow, being the first postmaster. 
The office was for many years kept in the store of the 
Honey Brook Coal Company. 

About the year 1870, the Rev. Daniel Durrelle was 
sent to this section by the Presbyterian Board of Mis- 
sions. Through his influence a congregation was gath- 
ered, and a church was erected in 1872, at Audenried. 
This church has now no regular pastor. 

The Methodists of this region were formerly under 
the charge of ministers from the Conyngham district. 
The church of this denomination was erected here in 
1869. 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 179 

St. Patrick's Roman Catholic church was commenced 
in 1873, the cornerstone being laid in June of that year. 
It was completed and dedicated two years later, Arch- 
bishop Wood performing the dedicatory service. The 
church was torn down about 1898 and removed to 
McAdoo, Schuylkill county, which is but a short dis- 
tance from Audenried. The Catholic population of the 
latter place now worship there. 

The Welsh Baptists and the Congregationalists wor- 
shiped together for a few years in the old armory 
building, and later in the school house. In 1872, the 
members of the first named denomination built a 
church at a cost of $2,500. Extensive improvements 
have since been made. It is now known as an English 
Baptist church. The Congregational church has no 
regular j^astor. 

Salem Evangelical Lutheran church was organized 
in 1891, the leading spirits in the movement being Rev. 
J. 0. Schlenker, then pastor of Christ church, Hazle- 
ton, and Rev. George Kunkle, then of Weatherly. The 
church was erected in 1893, the cornerstone being laid 
on the twenty-ninth of October. 

On July 10, 1871, the company which erected Hos- 
ack Hall was formed. A lot was donated by the New 
York and Lehigh Coal Company. The building erected 
thereon, which is still standing, cost $7,500. 

Tresckow, lying east of Audenried and Yorktown, 
is the outgrowth of the mining operations commenced 
there in 1851 by the German Pennsylvania Coal Com- 
pany. Formerly it was commonly known as Dutch- 
town. By many it is to-day called Park View. The 
name of the postoffice, however, is Tresckow. It is a 
neat village, containing many cozy dwelling houses. 
The people of the place find employment at the nearby 
collieries of the various coal companies. The Banks 



180 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

township high school is located at this point. St. 
Michael's Roman Catholic church was here erected in 
1909. 

Jeanesville, but a short distance from Tresckow, 
lies mostly in Luzerne county. The place was named 
for Joseph Jeanes, of Philadelphia. The village dates 
back to 1847, when the mines at this place were opened. 
The town has declined since the Jeanesville iron works 
were removed to Hazleton in 1902. 

Coleraine depends wholly on the colliery of that 
name, owned and operated by the estate of A. S. Van- 
Wickle. The history of this operation, which has al- 
ready been given, is the history of the village. The 
Independent Welsh Congregational church at this 
place was one of the first in the region. It was erected 
in 1848, and the people of that denomination from 
places so far away as Audenried, Buck Mountain and 
Hazleton formerly worshiped there. 

Leviston and Coolstown are hamlets lying close to 
Coleraine, occupying the site of the old Beaver 
Meadow mines. The Lehigh Valley Railroad has a 
station here. 

The village known as Coxeville, located on the high- 
way leading from Beaver Meadow to Hazleton, has 
grown up since the seventies, when the colliery of Coxe 
Brothers & Company, upon which it depends, was 
opened. 

Following the practice that prevails in most of the 
coal-producing townships of the region. Banks does 
not levy any taxes for road purposes, the highways 
being maintained by the Taxpayers ' Association, which 
means the coal companies. They have found it more 
economical to follow this plan than to pay taxes. 
There are ninteen graded schools and one high school, 
housed in six buildings, in the district. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 181 

BEAVER MEADOW BOBOUGH. 

While being next to the youngest borough in Carbon 
county, Beaver Meadow nevertheless enjoys the dis- 
tinction of being the oldest town in the upper end of the 
county. It is located centrally in Banks township, of 
which it formed a part prior to its organization as a 
borough in 1897. A number of citizens, headed by J. 
M. Stauffer, who was then a prominent resident here, 
made an effort to secure the incorporation of the town 
in 1896, but the grand jury acted adversely on their 
petition, and a charter was not granted until the fol- 
lowing year. Mr. Stauffer became the first chief bur- 
gess. 

Beaver Meadow is maintained by the surrounding 
coal operations of Coxe Brothers & Company, the 
mines of the A. S. VanWickle Estate, at Coleraine, a 
little more than a mile distant, and the workings of the 
Evans Colliery Company. 

The town is situated on the Beaver Meadow division 
of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, about six miles from 
Weatherly, and four from Hazleton. It lies approxi- 
mately fourteen hundred feet above sea level, while 
Beaver creek flows sluggishly past it, parallel to the 
railroad tracks. Its name was derived from the cir- 
cumstance that the smooth and glossy beaver once lived 
and toiled in the meadows along the creek. 

The land on which the town is built was warranted 
in 1787 to Patrick and Mary Keene, and later it came 
into the possession of Nathan Beach, who sold five 
hundred acres to Judge Joseph Barnes, of Philadel- 
phia, in 1830. 

The Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike ran through 
the tract, and the principal street of the village, still 
known as Berwick street, was built on the line of this 
old highway. The first house was here erected in 1804. 



182 HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

It was of logs, and was kept as a tavern. There was a 
tollgate at the foot of the Spring mountain, kept by a 
man named Green. 

On April 10, 1826, William H. Wilson removed, with 
his family, to the place and became the landlord of the 
tavern. The next arrival was James Lamison, who 
built a house which he, in 1831, occupied as a tavern. 
In 1833 came N. R. Penrose, a member of the family 
to which United States Senator Boies Penrose, of 
Pennsylvania, belongs. He became the agent of the 
property of Judge Barnes, and built the large frame 
building at the eastern end of the town, later known 
as the ''Cornishmen's Home." Upon its completion it 
was occupied by William H. Wilson as a tavern. Later 
it became the property of James Gowan, father of 
Franklin B. Gowan, who became famous as the able 
and aggressive president of the Philadelphia and Read- 
ing Railway Company and its subsidiary coal and iron 
company. This building was also for a time used as 
a store, being owned by William T. Carter and others. 
It was for many years one of the landmarks of Beaver 
Meadow, and was finally torn down in 1910. Much of 
the timber it contained was used in erecting new dwell- 
ing houses, while some of it was sawed into proper 
length for mine ties. 

One of the early residents of Beaver Meadow was 
Henry Brenckman, a native of Germany. He had be- 
come skilled in the art of brewing beer and had ac- 
quired the trade of a cooper in the Fatherland. Upon 
locating in Beaver Meadow he erected a small brewery, 
probably the first in Carbon county. He personally 
made the barrels which contained the output of his 
plant, and kept a tavern. His death occurred in 1860. 

The early growih and prosperity of Beaver Meadow 
resulted from the operations of the Beaver Meadow 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 183 

Railroad and Coal Company, the Beaver Meadow 
Mines, where coal was first produced in Banks town- 
ship, being situated about a mile west of the town. 
The railroad to the mines was finished and 
opened for transportation in the fall of 1836. 
The machine, blacksmith and car shops of the 
company were located at Beaver Meadow. The 
first master mechanic of the shops was Hopkin 
Thomas, a Welsh immigrant, and one of the 
pioneer inventors of the Lehigh Valley. Through one 
of his inventions anthracite coal was first made avail- 
able as fuel for the use of locomotives. He also in- 
vented and successfully used the chilled cast-iron car 
wheel, as well as the most improved and successful 
mine pumps and machinery of the day. 

Under the supervision of Mr. Thomas, a ten-wheel 
locomotive, said to have been the first of its kind built 
in this country, and named the "Nonpareil," was con- 
structed at Beaver Meadow. The shops were removed 
to Weatherly in 1842. 

In 1848, N. R, Penrose erected a foundry here, which 
he conducted for a short time, then disposing of the 
property to S. W. and B. W. Hudson. In 1859, B. W. 
Hudson purchased the interest of his brother and con- 
tinued the business until 1865. Much of the iron work 
used in constructing the Mahanoy division of the Le- 
high Valley Railroad was turned out from this foundry. 
After the retirement of B. W. Hudson, the shops 
passed into the ownership of the Spring Mountain 
Coal Company, and were torn down in 1868 and re- 
moved to Jeanesville. These shops formed the nucleus 
of the Jeanesville Iron Works, since established at 
Hazleton, constituting one of the largest industries 
of that city. Beaver Meadow was already quite a vil- 



184 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

lage before Hazleton was born, and the people of the 
last named place once did their trading here. 

The only coal operation within the borough limits 
is the Number 4 slope of Coxe Brothers & Company, 
which was sunk by Jonah Rees, about 1867. It was for 
a time abandoned, but during the eighties it was sunk 
to the basin by Coxe Brothers & Company. It is from 
the foot of this slope that the drainage tunnel through 
the Spring mountain to Quakake Valley is driven. 

A postoffice was established here in 1830, with Wil- 
liam H. Wilson in charge. The second postmaster was 
A. G. Brodhead, who, in turn, was succeeded by Mr. 
Wilson. The present incumbent is Robert Trezise. 

The first school in the place was kept by Miss Lydia 
Bidlack, and was opened about the year 1835. A later 
teacher who served for many years was Thomas Mc- 
Curly. There are now five graded schools in the town, 
all being housed in one building. 

A Presbyterian church was here organized about 
1838, largely through the influence of A. H. VanCleve, 
who was then superintendent of the Beaver Meadow 
shops. The edifice in which this congregation wor- 
shiped occupied the site on which the hall of the Pa- 
triotic Order of Sons of America now stands. The re- 
moval of the shops to Weatherly affected the congrega- 
tion, and it declined. The Methodists subsequently 
conducted services in the church, and upon the erec- 
tion of a new building by that denomination, in 1874, 
the adherents of the German Reformed faith found a 
meeting place in the old edifice for a time. 

St. Mary's Roman Catholic church was founded in 
1841. The original church building stood on the ceme- 
tery of the parish, a short distance beyond the town 
on the road to Hazleton. St. Nicholas' church, of 
Weatherly, and St. Joseph's, of Laurytown, were for- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 185 

merly missions of this church. During the pastorate 
of Rev. Francis Brady, the old church was removed 
to the site of the present building, which was erected 
during the pastorate of Rev. John J. McEnroe. The 
cornerstone of the new building was laid in 1904, while 
the church, which cost about $15,000, was dedicated by 
the Rt. Rev. Edmund F. Prendergast. Formerly St. 
Mary's was the only Catholic church in this part of the 
coal region, and the people of Hazleton, Audenried, 
Weatherly, Buck Mountain, and other places journeyed 
hither to worship. 

St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran church was built in 
1897. Rev. J. O. Schlenker, formerly pastor of Christ 
church, Hazleton, and Rev. D. G. Gerberich, of Weath- 
erly, were the leading spirits in the organization of 
this congregation. 

St. Peter's and St. Paul's Greek Catholic chui'ch 
was erected in 1895, the cornerstone being laid during 
the month of May. 

The town is supplied with water by the Citizens' 
Water Company, organized at about the time of the 
erection of the borough. 

Both the Anthracite and the Bell Telephone Com- 
pany have lines connecting with this place. A rural 
line connecting with the system of the latter company 
at Hazleton was built in 1908, Robert Trezise being 
the local agent. 

The streets of the borough were allowed to remain 
unlighted until 1911, when the Harwood Electric Light 
and Power Company extended its lines to this point. 
The town has a fire company, but its equipment is 
meagre. Thomas Grenfell is the present chief burgess. 



186 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

EAST MAVCH CHUNK BOROUGH, 

The principal cause which operated to bring the 
town of East Mauch Chunk into existence was the 
scarcity of land available for building purposes in 
Mauch Chunk proper, of which it originally formed a 
part. It is situated on the eastern bank of the Lehigh 
river, opposite to its sister borough, and is a town of 
homes rather than of industries and business estab- 
lishments. 

The locality was known during the early years of 
its settlement and growth as "The Kettle," a designa- 
tion that had a certain degree of appropriateness in 
view of the great bowl formed by the surrounding 
mountains. 

John Burns took up his residence here in 1824, while 
John Ruddle came at a later period. 

The spot being favorable for the location of a town, 
affording a large tract of comparatively smooth land, 
gently sloping towards the river, the Lehigh Coal and 
Navigation Company, in 1850, laid out about sixty 
acres in lots, which were soon disposed of at one hun- 
dred dollars each. 

The place grew rapidly, and additions to the original 
plot were made from time to time. 

Isaac Butz was the first merchant in the town; at 
the expiration of five years he, in 1864, disposed of 
his business to Elwin Bauer, who, after nearly fifty 
years still retains it. Others, who later established 
themselves in various lines of business were, Samuel 
Kennedy, John Muth, Robert Bauchspies, John Dick- 
man and Hoover Brothers. 

The Centre House, built by Solomon Dreisbach, a 
native of Northampton county, who came to this local- 
ity in 1850, was the first hotel. It was kept by him for 
many years. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 187 

The wharf of the Beaver Meadow Railroad and the 
Honeybrook Coal Company was the town's initial in- 
dustry. After the freshet of 1862, it came under the 
control of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, 
being abandoned in 1887. 

In response to a petition of its people, East Mauch 
Chunk was incorporated as a borough on January 1, 
1854. 

John Ruddle, who has already been mentioned as 
one of the earliest settlers, was chosen as the first chief 
burgess. The original members of town council were: 
Jacob S. Wallace, Lucas Ashley, Thomas L. Foster, 
David Mummey, J. R. Twining and John Beighe. 

A frame school house, built in the woods, where 
Fourth and North streets now intersect, was erected in 
1851. It was occupied in November of that year. 
Ellen Thompson was the teacher in charge, while 
there were twenty pupils in attendance. This was the 
first school in the town. Mrs. George Barker succeeded 
Ellen Thompson as teacher. In 1856, another frame 
building was erected on the same lot as the first, while 
still another was opened at the weigh lock. 

The old building now in use was erected in 1871, 
when the schools were first regularly graded. R. W. 
Young was the first principal. In 1900, the present 
high school building, which is a handsome, well- 
equipped structure, was built. 

During the past twenty years, the educational inter- 
ests of the borough have been under the supervision 
of P. H. McCabe, a man of practical ideas and general 
efficiency. The parochial schools of the town were es- 
tablished under the auspices of St. Joseph's Roman 
Catholic church, in 1874. They were first kept by 
Sisters of Christian charity, who had been exiled by 
the Prussian government. 



188 HISTOKi^ OF CARBON COUNTY. 

The postoffice was here opened in May, 1870, with 
J. M. Dreisbach, now president of the Mauch Chunk 
Trust Company, as the postmaster. His deputy was 
Elwin Bauer, who attended to the duties of the office. 

Six churches now supply the means of grace to the 
people of East Mauch Chunk: 

St. John's Episcopal church was started as a mis- 
sion of St. Mark's, of Mauch Chunk. This was during 
the rectorship of Rev. Peter Russell. On August 16, 
1867, the cornerstone of the present church edifice was 
laid by the Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens, D.D., 
Bishop of Pennsylvania. The building was conse- 
crated on December 23, 1875, by the Rt. Rev. M. A. 
DeWolfe Howe, D.D., Bishop of Central Pennsylvania. 
St. John's was organized as an independent parish on 
October 12, 1891, Rev. A. A. Bresee, now of Lehighton, 
being the first rector. The rectory was completed two 
years later. 

The Methodist Episcopal church was also founded 
as a mission of that denomination in Mauch Chunk. 
General Charles Albright and R. Q. Butler purchased 
the lot on which, in 1868, a chapel was erected, while 
Rev. Charles Bickley was appointed as pastor. The 
chapel, which has since been replaced by a larger and 
more modern building, was dedicated on the evening of 
December 16, 1868. A flourishing Sunday school was 
at once established, constituting one of the principal 
sources of the congregation's strength. C. A. Rex, the 
well-known Mauch Chunk merchant, has been the su- 
perintendent of this school for nearly forty years, 

St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church was founded in 
1871, the first pastor being Rev. G. Frende, who was 
then stationed at Lehighton. During the following year 
he was succeeded by Rev. William Heinan, one of the 
ablest and best-known members of the priesthood in 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. ^gg 

this section of Pennsylvania. He was particularly suc- 
cessful as a church builder, having been instrumental 
in the erection of churches in various localities. It 
was under his leadership that the massive and costly 
temple in which St. Joseph's congregation now wor- 
ships was erected in 1897. 

On September 5, 1878, the Eeformed and Lutheran 
people of the borough organized a union church. Prior 
to this religious services had been conducted in the 
public school house at Fourth and North streets at 
occasional intervals for many years. The cornerstone 
of the union church was laid in September, 1878. In 
1893, the Lutherans purchased the interest of the Re- 
formed people, since which time the two congregations 
have been independent of each other. The original 
building is still in use, although it was remodeled in 
1905. 

After the separation, the Eeformed element, under 
the leadership of Rev. Morgan Peters, now of Palmer- 
ton, built a new church. This was erected during the 
same year in which the division took place 

The Memorial Presbyterian church was the out- 
growth of a mission started here by the First Presby- 
terian church of Mauch Chunk. The congregation has 
been on a self-sustaining basis since February 14, 1903. 
Its house of worship was erected twenty years previ- 
ous to that time. Rev. A. J, Wright was the first pas- 
tor in charge. The church now has an active member- 
ship of about one hundred and forty. 

The plant of the Dery Silk Mill constitutes the 
largest industry of East Mauch Chunk, affording em- 
ployment to more than four hundred operatives. The 
mill has been in operation for more than twenty-five 
years. A. W. Leisenring was prominent among those 
who secured its establishment. 



igQ , HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

Charles Neast & Company have also operated a large 
planing mill here for years. 

The Eagle Brewery was built by Easton capitalists 
about the time of the Civil War. Since 1879 it has been 
owned and operated by Pius H. Schweibinz, who re- 
built and enlarged the original plant. 

There are several smaller establishments giving em- 
ployment to labor within the limits of the borough, 
among the number being a facing mill, located in the 
Narrows, and owned by the Lehigh Coal and Naviga- 
tion Company. The power plants of the Mauch Chunk 
Heat, Power and Electric Light Company and the 
Carbon Transit Company are also situated in the bor- 
ough. 

East Mauch Chunk has two fire companies. The first 
to be organized was the Onoko Hose Company, the 
building of which was erected in 1890. This also is the 
meeting place of town council. 

Edward Armbruster, son of Charles Armbruster, the 
present burgess of the town, was the leading spirit in 
the organiganization of the Fairview Hose Company, 
in 1907. Both companies have fine buildings and good 
equipments. 

The town has been supplied with water by the Mauch 
Chunk Water Company since the beginning, deriving 
its light from the Mauch Chunk Heat, Power and Elec- 
tric Light Company. 

Since 1892 it has been connected with its sister bor- 
ough by means of an electric railway, now operated by 
the Carbon Transit Company. During the same year 
the Progressive Building and Loan Association was 
organized. This institution has been a distinct and 
material benefit to the town. Many of the substantial, 
and beautiful homes in the place were erected through 
its agency. Charles Neast is the president of the as- 
sociation, while Philip Swank is its secretary. 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 19X 

Prior to 1906 the town depended for banking facili- 
ties upon Mauch Chunk. But on the twenty-eighth of 
November of that year the Citizens' National Bank of 
East Mauch Chunk was chartered. Quentin Stemler 
and J. H. Leibenguth have served as president and 
cashier, respectively, since the opening of the institu- 
tion, which declared its first dividend in July, 1910. 
The capital of the bank is fifty thousand dollars. 

East Mauch Chunk has two burying grounds, that of 
the Evergreen Cemetery Association, started in 1876, 
and that of St. Joseph 's Catholic church. 

The first census of the borough, taken in 1860, 
showed the population to be 833. In 1910, the number 
had risen to 3,548. The place is divided into three 
wards, of which the Third is the least populous. 

East Mauch Chunk is primarily a railroad town, the 
majority of its people depending directly or indirectly, 
on the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Central Rail- 
road of New Jersey. 

EAST PENN TOWNSHIP. 

The township of Penn, embracing that portion of the 
territory of Carbon county lying between the Blue 
mountain and the western bank of the Lehigh river, 
together with a part of Schuylkill county, was set oft 
from Towamensing in the year 1768. 

In 1808, East Penn, West Penn and Lausanne were 
formed from Penn township. East Penn embraced the 
present township of Mahoning and the greater part of 
Mauch Chunk. West Penn became a part of Schuylkill 
county in 1811. 

In 1827 the territory of East Penn was reduced by 
the setting off of Mauch Chunk township, the major 
portion of which was taken from this district. Fifteen 
years later, Mahoning was carved from East Penn, 



]^92 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

since which time there have been no changes in its 
boundaries. 

It is bounded on the north by Mahoning township, 
on the east by the Lehigh river, on the south by the 
Blue mountain^ which separates it from Lehigh county, 
and on the west by the Schuylkill. 

Lizard creek flowing eastwardly through the town- 
ship to the Lehigh, is the principal stream. The valley 
drained by this stream is devoted principally to agri- 
culture, containing many fine farms and comfortable 
homes. The Lizard Creek branch of the Lehigh Valley 
Railroad, which was opened in 1890, and an extension 
of the Lehigh and New England Railroad completed in 
1912, pass through the township. 

The first settlers of East Penn were English people, 
bearing the family names of Tipple, Pearsoll, Rhoads, 
Johnson, Meyers, Washburn, Thomas, Custard and 
others. They received the grants for their lands about 
the year 1750. 

Subsequent to the Revolution, most of them emi- 
grated to Canada, being succeeded here by Palatinates 
with whom the remaining families became intermar- 
ried, and, in time, by them entirely absorbed. 

It was formerly believed that the Indian missionary 
village of Wechquetank, established by the Moravians 
soon after the destruction of Gnadenhiitten, was situ- 
ated in the Lizard Creek Valley; but recent research 
has demonstrated that this village was located in the 
jn-esent township of Polk, Monroe county. 

The eastern section of the township, especially along 
the Lehigh, was not permanently settled until after 
1800. The western portion was settled by English and 
Germans, who came in soon after the close of the war 
of Independence. The locality about Ben Salem 
church was the center of the settlement. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 193 

Among the best known of the German pioneers of 
the township was Conrad Rehrig, whose father came 
to America at an early day, locating at or near Phila- 
delphia. Conrad served in the Revolution, after which 
he married and built his home in the Lizard Creek 
Valley. He was one of the founders of Ben Salem 
church, in the graveyard of which repose his remains. 
His descendants in this portion of the state are quite 
numerous. 

The father of the Andreas family in East Penn bore 
the Christian name of Martin, He emigrated from 
Alsace, on the Rhine, on board the ship ''Leslie," ar- 
riving in Philadelphia in 1749. He, too, served as a 
soldier in the Revolution. 

Jacob and Peter, his sons, jointly purchased and oc- 
cupied, in 1793, what is now commonly known as the 
Nimson farm, at Ashfield. Their brother, William, 
came to the township in 1807, locating in the western 
portion. 

Jacob Dinkey, who in 1810 purchased the property 
first occupied by Jacob and Peter Andreas, was a na- 
tive of Whitehall township, Lehigh county. Removing 
to East Penn, he opened a tavern, store and black- 
smith shop. 

Upon his farm was built the first school house in the 
eastern part of the township. He served for many 
years as a justice of the peace, and was in 1843 elected 
as one of the first associate judges of Carbon county. 

Reuben, one of his six children, succeeded his father 
in the conduct of the tavern and as justice of the 
peace. He was the father of Eurana Dinkey, who be- 
came the wife of Charles M. Schwab, the millionaire 
steel manufacturer. 

Her brother, Alva, is the president of the Carnegie 
Steel Company, and another brother, Charles, is the 
head of the Edgar Thompson steel works. 



194 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

It appears that Andrew and Charles Steigerwalt 
were the first representatives of that family in the 
township. 

A. B. Nimson came here in 1824 as a school teacher, 
afterwards taking a prominent part in the political 
affairs of the county, being thrice elected to the office 
of register and recorder. 

Stephen Balliet and Samuel Helffrich, in 1828, 
erected Penn Forge and Furnace, near the present vil- 
lage of Ashfield, which was then called Pennsville. 
The last-named of the partners died in 1830, after 
which Balliet became the sole owner. In 1837, he es- 
tablished his home in the locality and, purchasing sev- 
eral thousand acres of land, started a furnace about 
three-quarters of a mile farther down the mountain, 
employing charcoal as fuel. 

Following the death of Mr. Balliet, in 1854, the fur- 
nace was successively operated by Solomon Boyer, 
C. H. Nimson, and John Balliet, a son of Stephen. It 
was abandoned years ago. 

Ben Salem Lutheran and Reformed church, the first 
to be organized in the township, was founded about 
1790. The first house of worship was of logs, hav- 
ing galleries on the sides. It was completed in 
1797 and stood until the erection of the present brick 
building, in 1855. In the burial ground adjoining the 
church sleep many of the forefathers of this region, 
among the number Rev. Johannes Schwarbach, the first 
Lutheran pastor of the congregation, who died before 
the completion of the church. 

The Lutheran and Reformed church at Ashfield was 
erected in 1851, being rebuilt thirty years later. 

The earliest schools of the township were conducted 
under the auspices of Ben Salem church, and only the 
German language was taught. In 1840, the district ac- 
cepted the free school law. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 195 

A postoffice was established at Ashfield about 1828, 
Jacob Dinkey being the first postmaster. 

After many years it was abandoned, but was re- 
opened in 1883, with Penrose George in charge. W. 
A. Balliet is the present postmaster. A rural delivery 
route, starting at Bowmanstown, passes through the 
township. 

Building sand of good quality is found in this dis- 
trict, and there are now several quarries in operation. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



EAST SIDE BOROUGH. 



East Side borough enjoys the distinction of being 
the smallest incorporated town in Pennsylvania. It 
was formerly known as East Haven, lying directly op- 
posite White Haven on the east bank of the Lehigh 
river. 

It is bounded on all sides excepting the west by 
Kidder township, of which it formed a part until Janu- 
ary 22, 1892, when the borough was incorporated con- 
formably to a decree of court. The western boundary 
is marked by the Lehigh. In 1900, the year when its 
first census was taken, the town had a population of 
210. During the succeeding decade, this number was 
augmented by but ten. There are less than forty voters 
in the place. 

Almost without exception the men of the village are 
employed as railroaders. The Wyoming division of 
the Lehigh Valley road passes through the town, while 
the Lehigh and Susquehanna division of the Central 
Railroad of New Jersey is on the opposite bank of the 
river. The place is pleasantly situated and practically 
all of the people own the homes which they occupy. 
A single school is maintained, but there is no church, 
the inhabitants worshiping at White Haven. 

In common with White Haven, the borough is noted 
as a health resort. Sunnyrest Sanatorium, the first 
private institution to be opened in Pennsylvania for the 
treatment of tuberculosis, is here located. 

The free hospital for poor consumptives was opened 
at White Haven in July, 1901, the location being chosen 
for its pure, bracing air, its dry soil, and its accessibil- 

196 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. X97 

ity. The success of the treatment at the free sana- 
torium was so gratifying that at once there was a de- 
mand for a private sanatorium. 

It was to meet this demand that Sunny rest Sana- 
torium was opened by Elwell Stockdale, in November, 
1901. Previous to this time Mr. Stockdale had been 
the superintendent in charge of the free hospital. 

The institution is situated in an attractive park, 
among beautiful trees and shrubbery, and consists of 
an administration building, a central dining hall, cot- 
tages, bungalows, and tent houses, a nurses' home and 
quarters for other employes. A dairy and a poultry 
farm of more than fifty acres are conducted in connec- 
tion with the sanitorium. 

The institution has been successful and prosperous 
from the start, its prestige drawing patients from all 
parts of North and South America, and even from the 
islands of the Pacific ocean. The place has an eleva- 
tion of twelve hundred feet above sea level. 

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 

As Virginia once claimed the proud title, ''Mother 
of the Presidents," so Franklin township is coming to 
be known as the ''Mother of the Sheriffs" of Carbon 
county. Certain it is that most of those who have been 
called to fill this office during a long period of years 
have come from this division of the county. 

Originally Franklin township formed a part of old 
Towamensing, and in 1841, when a division was made, 
it became a part of Upper Towamensing, or, as it is 
known to-day, Towamensing. It so remained until 
the year 1851, when it was separately organized and 
the new township named "Franklin" by the court. 
This designation was deemed appropriate because it 
was on the borders of its territory that Benjamin 



198 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Franklin erected Fort Allen as a measure of protection 
for the white settlers after the Indian massacre at 
Gnadenhiitten. 

The Poho Poco creek, crossing Towamensing town- 
ship, flows westwardly through Franklin, and at a 
point southeast of Weissport turns abruptly and runs 
nearly parallel with the river, its waters mingling with 
those of the Lehigh at Parryville. The township is 
uneven, but is well adapted to agricultural pursuits. 
Many of its people, especially those of East Weissport, 
Eickertsville and Phifer's Corner are employed in the 
repair shops of the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Packer- 
ton. The old state road leading from Lehighton to 
Stroudsburg extends through the district. The stretch 
running from Weissport to Harrity, a distance of 
about two miles, has recently been rebuilt and placed 
in excellent condition. 

About the year 1750 a few families settled within 
the present limits of the township, but all removed a 
few years later when the Indians took the war path 
and bade fair to exterminate all the whites who re- 
mained along the border. 

It appears that the first permanent settlement in 
Franklin township was made by the Solt family, and 
their descendants are still to be found in the district. 
Before the close of the Revolution, John, David and 
Daniel Solt lived here. 

John Arner was of the family who came into this 
region soon after the war of Independence. The 
people of that name have now become so numerous 
that they have formed a family association, holding 
annual reunions in the township that bring hundreds 
together from various sections of the country. 

Jost Dreisbach was also of an old family who came 
to the township before 1800. At about the same time 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. X99 

George Walk settled on Saw Mill creek, where he car- 
ried on lumbering operations for many years. 

Jacob Houseknecht was a landholder here in 1781, 
his farm including the present site of the Harrity 
hotel. 

In 1826, David Heimbach, Sr., of Lehigh county, pur- 
chased two tracts of land in what is now Franklin 
township — one of eighty-six acres from Martin House- 
knecht, and another of forty-three from Henry 
Thomas. In 1809, he had built the furnace called 
"Hampton," in Lehigh county, while, about 1817, he 
and his son David built a forge on the Aquashicola 
creek, near Little Gap. 

The next year after the purchase of this property, or 
in 1827, the elder Heimbach erected on the present site 
of Harrity, along the bank of the Poho Poco creek, a 
furnace which he called "New Hampton." He placed 
his son, John, in charge of it. John Heimbach re- 
mained in charge of the furnace until 1834. David 
Heimbach, the elder, died at his home in Allentown 
during that year, and his sons, David and John at- 
tended the funeral. David at the time was the owner 
of the "Clarissa" forge on the Aquashicola creek. 
Upon their return to Carbon county, both men were 
stricken with typhoid fever, of which they died, — one 
at night and the other on the morning of the next day. 

In 1836 the property was acquired by William Mil- 
ler, by whom the name was changed to "Maria," in 
honor of his wife. 

The furnace was operated under various owners 
until January 1, 1859, when it was blown out, its fires 
never to be rekindled. 

The ore that was used at this operation was brought 
Up from the iron region on the Lehigh Canal. 



200 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

James and Daniel Laury, in the year 1849, erected 
a forge on Pine run, near the point where that stream 
empties into Poho Poco creek. It was carried on but a 
few years. 

The history of the boat yard which the Lehigh Coal 
and Navigation Company conducts at East Weissport 
dates back to the year 18.32, when Lewis Weiss com- 
menced building boats on the bank of the canal for 
the Morris Canal and Banking Company and the Le- 
high Coal and Navigation Company. 

Practically all the boats used on the Lehigh Canal are 
built and repaired at this yard. About twenty men are 
employed, A. T. Koch being the foreman. 

The fence factory, located at Phifer's Corner, was 
established by Landon B. Wagner, who still owns and 
operates it. Formerly he also manufactured stone- 
ware and pottery, but this branch of the business has 
been abandoned. 

The fish hatchery, located on a small tributary of the 
Poho Poco creek, a short distance from Harrity, was 
established by Charles Wolters, Sr., of Philadelphia, in 
1899. Mr. Wolters has since died, and the place is now 
owned by his son, Charles Wolters. This is pro- 
nounced by fish experts to be the most successful hatch- 
ery in the United States. Its success has largely been 
due to the intelligent efforts of Henry H. Wert, who 
superintended the construction of the plant and who 
has been in continuous charge since that time. East 
Weissport has two wagon and carriage building estab- 
lishments. The first was started by Stephen Ziegen- 
fuss in 1890 and is now conducted by his son, John A. 
Ziegenfuss. The other is that of H. R. Kreidler, es- 
tablished by him in 1892. 

The first school in what is now Franklin township 
was opened in 1822. Anterior to that time the children 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 201 

of the district attended a school kept on the site of the 
Gnadenhiitten mission. The school that was then 
opened, however, was conducted in the German lan- 
guage, being taught by Lewis Schnell. The only books 
used were the primer, the Psalter, and the Bible. 

In 1827 the school was removed three miles south, to 
the homestead of Rev. Charles Eickenberg. James 
Kuehner and John Keifer were among those who 
taught this school. The first named had a reputation 
as a good disciplinarian, and is said to have laid espe- 
cial stress on having the children commit to memory 
hymns and prayers, which were regularly repeated be- 
fore recitations. 

In 1836, Towamensing township accepted the free 
school law, and as has already been said, Franklin was 
then a part of Towamensing. 

The first public school house in Franklin was con- 
structed of logs that were furnished by Daniel Solt, 
having been taken from an ancient building that was 
erected before the Revolution. The second building 
was located at Weissport. That portion of the town- 
ship lying along the east bank of the Lehigh Canal 
gradually outgrew the rest of the district, and in 1890 
was organized as the Franklin Independent School Dis- 
trict. This district has a high school and five graded 
schools. The township proper has seven school 
houses, containing eight rooms. 

Among the villages of Franklin township the first in 
importance and population is East Weissport, which 
is only arbitrarily separated from the borough, of 
Weissport, and to which its history more properly be- 
longs. This village has many of the conveniences and 
improvements of modern life. It has an excellent 
water supply and is electrically lighted by the plant 
of Lehighton borough. 



202 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Rickertsville is also situated on the east bank of the 
Lehigh Canal. The land on which the settlement is lo- 
cated was formerly owned by Joseph Wintermuth, a 
brick maker. He sold eight acres, in 1864, to Emanuel 
Reinhart, who, in turn, sold most of the land to J. K. 
Rickert, who made a plot and sold lots that have since 
been used for building purposes. 

The principal cause that led to the building up of 
this place was the character of the ground, it being 
higher than the land about Weissport, and, therefore, 
not liable to devastation by flood. 

Phifer's Corner has grown up in the last quarter of 
a century. It lies on the line of the state road running 
from Lehighton to Stroudsburg, being but a short dis- 
tance east of Weissport. It derives its name from 
Alexander T. Phifer, who conducted the first store 
here, and who was instrumental in securing the settle- 
ment and upbuilding of the place. Most of the homes 
here are neat and new, and are owned by those who 
occupy them. 

Harrity, about a mile farther east on the state road, 
is the namesake of William F. Harrity, who was a 
Philadelphia business man and a prominent Demo- 
cratic leader. It was at this point that the Maria fur- 
nace was located. There is now a hotel, a store, grist 
mill and several dwellings in the place. 

Walksville is in the northeastern part of the town- 
ship. The Price Paint Company conducted an ochre 
mill here for a number of years, but it was removed 
many years ago. 

At Beltzville, which is now the home of David Beltz, 
John Bauman years ago erected a hotel, at which the 
elections for old Towamensing were held. Later, Mr. 
Beltz conducted a hotel and store here, but he now 
confines himself to agricultural pursuits. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 203 

There are two rural mail routes through the town- 
ship, both having been established on September 1, 
1903. They start from the Weissport postoffice. 
Gordon Kresge and Joel H. Boyer have been the car- 
riers on these routes since the inauguration of the 
service. 

The line of the Indian Ridge Rural Telephone Com- 
pany, connecting with the Bell system at Lehighton, 
and that of the Consolidated Telephone Company also 
cover the township. 

There are at present three Lutheran, four Evan- 
gelical, and one Reformed church in the district. A 
union Sunday school is maintained at Walksville. 

St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran congregation at Big 
Creek was organized in 1841 by Rev. F. W. Meendsen. 
He was born in Denmark in the year 1780, emigrating 
to America in 1808. He was an indefatigable worker, 
and was one of the best known preachers of his church 
in all Pennsylvania. 

KIDDEB TOWNSHIP. 

strange as it may seem to-day, Kidder township, 
which is as undeniably a portion of Pennsylvania as 
is the land on which Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are 
built, was for years claimed and actually governed by 
Connecticut. 

Under the terms of her charter, given in 1662, and 
antedating that of William Penn by a score of years, 
Connecticut claimed a strip of land as wide as herself 
and extending westward to the Pacific ocean. It was 
admitted by the claimant that New York presented a 
barrier; but overleaping this, the strip began at the 
Delaware river and embraced the whole northern sec- 
tion of the state. The southern boundary line was 
formed by the forty-first parallel, which crosses the 



204 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

state at Stroudsburg, and this line took in all of the 
present township of Kidder and a small fraction of 
Penn Forest. 

With this claim as a foundation, the Susquehanna 
Company, numbering eight hundred proprietors, was 
formed to buy of the Indians and settle a large tract 
of land in northeastern Pennsylvania. 

In 1753, at the treaty of Albany, eighteen Indian 
chiefs, representing the Six Nations, gave a deed, con- 
veying to the New Englanders the desired territory, 
in exchange for a few inexpensive presents. 

At that time the governor of Pennsylvania had not 
acquired any title to this soil from the aborigines. 

However, in 1768, a treaty was negotiated with the 
Indians, under the provisions of which the proprie- 
taries became possessed of the land which had pre- 
viously been sold to the Susquehanna Company. 

In 1774 the general assembly of Connecticut passed 
an act erecting all of the territory to which claim was 
laid, from the river Delaware to a line fifteen miles 
west of the Susquehanna, into the county of Westmore- 
land, attaching to the county of Lichfield. 

The territory in question comprised about five thou- 
sand square miles, equal in extent to one-ninth of the 
whole area of Pennsylvania. The town of Westmore- 
land, occupying the site of modern Wilkes-Barre, was 
made the seat of justice for the new county. 

In accordance with the acf of assembly, the governor 
of Connecticut issued a proclamation forbidding settle- 
ment within the limits of the territory in dispute, ex- 
cept under authority of that colony. 

This was followed by a similar proclamation from 
the governor of Pennsylvania, asserting the authority 
of the proprietaries. 



HISTOBY OF CARBON COUNTY. 205 

Settlers from Connecticut in large numbers were al- 
ready on the ground and the influx steadily continued. 

A miniature war followed, which centered around 
Westmoreland, now Wilkes-Barre. Forts were built 
and captured; prisoners were taken and held as host- 
ages, the intruding offenders being placed in jail at 
Easton. But the Pennsylvanians were worsted in the 
encounters. Connecticut exercised jurisdiction, and the 
county of Westmoreland regularly elected representa- 
tives to the assembly of Connecticut. 

Finally the Continental Congress prevailed upon the 
contending parties to cease their efforts till a legal 
settlement could be effected. 

The Revolutionary War interfered with this. At the 
close of that struggle, the question at issued was wisely 
submitted to arbitration, and the commission which 
was appointed to hear the case unanimously decided 
that the land in dispute belonged to Pennsylvania. 
Thus ended the struggle which for a generation had 
been in progress to determine the ownership of this 
large portion of our domain. 

Kidder township was organized in 1849 from terri- 
tory previously embraced in Penn Forest, which 
formed a part of Monroe county until 1843, the year of 
the establishment of Carbon county. It was named 
after Judge Luther Kidder, who was then on the bench. 
It is bounded on the north and west by the Lehigh river, 
on the east by the Tobyhanna creek and Monroe county, 
and on the south by Mud run and the Dilltown creek, 
which separate it from Penn Forest. 

Mud pond. Round pond, Grass lake and Lake Har- 
mony, formerly known as Big pond are situated in the 
western portion of the township. Black creek, Hays 
creek and Mud run flow westwardly into the Lehigh. 
The main line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad runs 



206 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

parallel to the river along the western border of the 
township. 

Dense forests of pine and hemlock formerly flour- 
ished here ; but the district is now denuded of its heavy 
timber, and it is one of the most sparsely populated 
sections of the county. 

Lumbering operations on an extensive scale were 
begun in the forties. One of the largest of the early 
landholders was Mahlon K. Taylor, of Bucks county, 
who owned over six thousand acres about the mouth 
of Hickory run, where he had a store and a wharf. 
About 1845 he sold a portion of his holdings to Israel 
Day and Samuel Saylor, of Easton, who were promi- 
nent among the lumbermen of the township for many 
years. 

It was at one of the mills of Mahlon K. Taylor & 
Company, near Saylorsville, that a large dam gave way 
during a freshet in 1847, resulting in the loss of seven 
lives. 

Among the best-known lumbermen along Hickory 
run were Isaac and Samuel Gould. A settlement, which 
came to be known as Hickory Eun sprang up about 
their operations. A postoffice was here established, 
while a Methodist church and a school house were 
erected. 

Saylorsville, another lumber camp on Hickory run, 
was named for Samuel Saylor, of the firm of Day & 
Saylor, who owned mills at this place. 

Leonardsville, which to-day is only a name, grew up 
about the mills of John Burke, who became the owner 
of the land in the vicinity about 1850. The place de- 
rived its name from William Leonard, who was the 
owner's foreman. 

Bridgeport dates back to 1856, when Keck, Childs & 
Company began cutting timber on a tract of several 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 207 

thousand acres, purchased from George M. Hollenbeck, 
who had previously erected a small saw-mill at the 
mouth of Hays creek. 

A portion of this tract was soon thereafter sold to 
Thomas SmuU & Company, who built a large tannery 
thereon. This plant was greatly enlarged in 1860, giv- 
ing it a capacity of eighty thousand hides a year. This 
was then the largest tannery in the country. The vil- 
lage which was built about this establishment was 
named Lehigh Tannery. A postoffice was here estab- 
lished in 1866. The ownership of the tannery changed 
hands several times, being last operated by I. M. Hol- 
comb & Company. It was destroyed by fire in 1875, and 
the supply of bark in the vicinity having become prac- 
tically exhausted, it was not rebult. The inter-county 
bridge across the Lehigh at this point was built in 1868. 

Albrightsville lies about fifteen miles northeast of 
Mauch Chunk, being situated on the southern border 
of the township. In 1844 Joseph Serfass built a tavern 
here, which he kept until 1850. He also started a store 
in an adjoining building which was kept for many 
years. The tavern is now kept by Herbert Getz. David 
Snyder was the first postmaster at Albrightsville. The 
postmaster now is Emery Getz, who conducts a store 
just across the line in Penu Forest township. 

Mud Run, situated at the junction of the stream of 
that name with the Lehigh river, is a station on the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad. Formerly there were many 
saw mills along the stream from this point to Albrights- 
ville. 

Mud Run will long be remembered as the scene of 
one of the most disastrous wrecks Tn the history of 
railroading, entailing the loss of sixty-six lives, and 
costing the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, on the 



208 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

line of which the catastrophe occurred, hundreds of 
thousands of dollars in settlement of damage claims. 

The accident took place on the night of October 10, 
1888, and those whose lives were thus suddenly and 
horribly snuffed out were chiefly residents of the Wy- 
oming and Lackawanna Valleys. 

On the day in question the various Catholic temper- 
ance societies of the Scranton diocese held their annual 
parade in Hazleton^ and excursion trains carrying thou- 
sands of people from Wilkes-Barre, Scranton and near- 
by towns were run over the road by way of Penn Haven 
Junction to the place of the pageant. 

Returning, the first train left Hazleton at five o'clock 
in the evening, and other sections followed at intervals 
of ten minutes. The first four trains reached their des- 
tination in safety, while the fifth halted for a few 
minutes in obedience to orders at Mud Run. While 
this train was standing still on the track near the 
station, the sixth section, drawn by two locomotives 
which were in charge of Harry E. Cook, of Wilkes- 
Barre, and Thomas Major, of East Mauch Chunk, who 
failed to see any signal of warning until too late, ap- 
proached at high speed and crashed into the rear end 
of the forward train with appalling results. 

The coaches of the stationary train were literally 
rent asunder by the terrible impact of the collision, 
while the scene of horror that ensued cannot be de- 
picted. When the onrushing train came to a stand- 
still, the pilot and boiler of the locomotive which was 
leading were heaped with the bodies of the dead and 
dying. To add to the misery of those who had escaped 
immediate destruction in the collision fire broke out 
amid the ruins of the wreck, and some were roasted 
to death. Fifty-seven people were killed outright, 
while nine others subsequently died from their injuries. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 209 

and many were maimed for life. Thirty-six of those 
killed were members of a boys' drill corps from Avoca, 
a town which then numbered but three hundred fami- 
lies, and which is situated midway between Wilkes- 
Barre and Scranton. The accident occurred at about 
eight o'clock, while the night was intensely dark, ren- 
dering the rescue of the wounded doubly difficult. 

Cook and Major, the enginemen of the last section, 
were nearly crazed by the magnitude of the catas- 
trophe for which they no doubt feared they would be 
blamed, and they spent the night in hiding in the woods. 
An effort was subsequently made to fasten the respon- 
sibility for the wreck upon them. They were charged 
with criminal negligence, and were placed on trial at 
the April term of court in 1889 ; both were acquitted. 

At the time of the accident, Major was a young man 
of about thirty-six years; so great was the mental 
strain under which he labored, however, that when he 
appeared in court at the opening of the trial, six months 
later, his hair was white as snow, and he walked with 
the feeble and tottering step of an old man. 

Kidder township, in common with other nearby dis- 
tricts, suffered an irreparable loss in the destruction 
of its forests by the great fire of 1875. The fire broke 
out near the mouth of Mud run on the 14th of May, 
and at first burned but slowly. Eight days later, how- 
ever, driven by a strong west wind, it swept eastward 
into Monroe county with ruinous results, destroying 
not only the major portion of the standing timber in the 
territory visited by the flames, but reducing to ashes 
many homes, mills, and other improvements, besides 
large quantities of logs and sawed lumber. Of the land 
thus denuded of its timber, which was the principal 
natural resource of the district, but a small portion has 
since been improved or placed under cultivation. 



210 ' HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Where the forests formerly stood, huckleberries now 
grow in great f^rofusion, and these are gathered and 
marketed on a scale of some importance. Numerous 
small birch and wintergreen distilleries have also 
grown up, their aggregate output equaling that of any 
district of similar size in the United States. 

Game and fish are quite plentiful in the township, 
the sparse pojiulation making it possible for the bear 
and the deer to live here. 

In 1903, the Hayes Creek Trout Company was 
formed by a number of men from Freeland, Pa., and 
a hatchery was established on the stream of that name, 
about three miles east of White Haven. The company 
owns 880 acres of land at this point. Fifty acres of 
this land is covered with small ponds, and other im- 
provements connected with the hatchery, while the re- 
mainder serves as a game preserve. 

The region about Lake Harmony has in recent years 
become quite popular as a summer resort. Numerous 
cottages or bungalows have been erected, principally 
by people from Mauch Chunk and Allentown, while 
many, lured by the cool breezes and quietness of the 
retreat, spend a portion of the heated term of each 
year as campers on the shores of the lake. The alti- 
tude of the locality is quite high, and the nights are 
always cool; the lake itself is over a mile in length, 
while at some places the water is very deep. It is 
drained by the Tobyhanna creek. 

Kidder township has four schools, located respec- 
tively at Albrightsville, Hickory Run, Lehigh Tannery, 
and on Hayes creek, near the trout hatchery. There 
are three taverns — the American Hotel and the Wer- 
nett House at Albrightsville, and the Valley House at 
Lehigh Tannery. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 211 

St. Paul's Lutheran church at Albrightsville, was 
erected in 1882. Missionaries of that denomination 
preached in this vicinity as early as 1847. 

The members of the Evangelical church also con- 
duct services here. 

LANSFOBD BOROUGH. 

Lansford, the most populous town in Carbon county, 
is situated in the heart of the richest anthracite coal 
district in the world. It is located in the Panther Creek 
Valley, on the line of Schuylkill county, nearly midway 
between Mauch Chunk and Tamaqua, and is reached by 
the Central Railroad of New Jersey. It bears the 
middle name of Asa Lansford Foster, who was born 
in Massachusetts, and who was prominently connected 
with the development of the mining industry of the Le- 
high region. He was the leading spirit in the formation 
of the Buck Mountain Coal Company, and drove one 
of the first tunnels in the Panther Creek Valley, being 
one of the foremost authorities on the geology of the 
coal regions. His death occurred in 1868, in the sev- 
enty-first year of his age. An appropriate memorial 
marks his resting place in the cemetery at Mauch 
Chunk. 

Lansford had its beginnings in two mining hamlets, 
known as Asliton and Storm Hill, and grew up as new 
operations were begun by the Lehigh Coal and Naviga- 
tion Company, which owns the mines through this val- 
ley. Storm Hill was so designated because a house 
built in the vicinity by a man named Peter Fisher blew 
over in a severe storm. 

David Williams, a Welshman, who came from Hazle- 
ton, and who was an expert geologist, planned and 
supervised the driving of some of the first tunnels in 
this section. Operations were begun about 1838. 



212 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, 

Planes were built from the valley to the mountain top 
at Summit Hill, whence the coal was transported to 
Mauch Chunk over the Switchback Railroad. The first 
coal was carried up these planes in 1846, but it was not 
until a few years later that the tunnels in the valley 
produced much coal. 

The growing importance of the new mines, the build- 
ing of the Nesquehoning Valley Railroad, early in the 
sixties, the driving of the tunnel through the mountain 
between Hanto and this place, furnishing easy access 
to the outside world, all contributed to the rapid growth 
of Lansford and operated to draw life away from the 
jjarent town of Summit Hill. 

During 1870-71, the construction and repair shops 
and the offices of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- 
pany were removed from Summit Hill to Lansford, fur- 
ther emphasizing the tendency alluded to. 

Land in the beginning was cheap, and lots were then 
sold for one hundred dollars which to-day, in some in- 
stances, are valued at more than twenty thousand dol- 
lars. 

Some of the early residents of the place, realizing its 
possibilities and discounting the future, amassed snug 
fortunes through this tremendous increase in the value 
of real estate. 

Those who first located here were principally of the 
Welsh, Irish and Scotch nationalities; but in later 
years, as in other towns of the coal regions, representa- 
tives of the countries of southern Europe have pressed 
in with increasing numbers. 

For more than thirty-five years, William D. Zehner, 
who had his offices here, was the superintendent of the 
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. He retired in 
1906, being succeeded by Baird Snyder, Jr., who re- 
signed early in 1912. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 0;[3 

During the early days the stores here were conducted 
by the company, giving little scope to individual enter- 
prise in this direction. With the abandonment of the 
company stores, however, numerous and varied busi- 
ness establishments sprang up. Among the first to 
enter the field were : Albert J. Thomas, J. C. Edwards, 
C. C. Edwards, A, M. Neumiller, Charles Kline, Reese 
Watkins, Howell Evans, John Quinn, D. R. Davis, D. J. 
Mathew, D. R. Hughes, William Y. Evans, and E. War- 
ren & Company. Some of these are still among the 
prominent business men of the town. 

The postoffice here was established on December 1, 
1873, under the name of Ashton, with Thomas W. Wil- 
liams as postmaster. It was thus designated until early 
in 1877, when the town was incorporated as a borough 
and the name changed to Lansford. Prior to this Lans- 
ford formed a part of Mauch Chunk township. The 
place is divided into three wards, named East, Middle 
and West, respectively. 

Since 1897 the postoffice has been in charge of Nathan 
Tanner, a veteran of the Civil war. This office was 
designated as a postal savings bank during the summer 
of 1911. Free delivery of the mail was inaugurated in 
the fall of 1912. 

As in other respects, the schools of the town were 
controlled by the township authorities until 1877. 

The first school building to be put up under the au- 
thority of the borough was erected in the Middle ward 
in 1879. It is still in use, and is known as the "high 
school" building. Two buildings have since been 
erected in the East ward, and one in the AVest ward. 
The schools were but partially graded until 1878, when 
L. Huber was appointed to the principalship. He was 
followed by A. G. C. Smith, now superintendent of the 
schools of Delaware county. The position of borough 



214 HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

feuperintendent of schools was created in 1903, with A. 
A. Killian as the incumbent. Two years later he was 
succeeded by E. E. Kuntz, the present superintendent. 

Under the requirements of the state department of 
public instruction, the high school of the place was 
raised to the first class in 1903. A good library is main- 
tained in connection with the school, and the physical 
and chemical departments are fairly well equipped. 

The parochial schools of St. Michael's (Slovak) 
Catholic church were opened in 1906, They are at 
present taught by seven Sisters of the Sacred Heart. 
Several hundred children are in attendance. 

The first attempt to light the streets by means of elec- 
tricity was made directly by the borough, but the serv- 
ice was unsatisfactory, while the cost was excessive, as 
is commonly the case under municipal management. 

On nights when the moon shone, there were no lights 
at all, while at other times they were turned off at 
midnight. Yet the cost of each light per year was one 
hundred and fifty dollars. 

After some years, the community grew impatient 
with this state of affairs, and disposed of its plant to 
the Panther Valley Heat, Power and Electric Light 
Company for ten thousand dollars. This company was 
chartered on February 20, 1893, and has since given 
the town good service at reasonable rates. Under its 
management incandescent lights were installed in the 
homes and business establishments of Lansford, and 
charges were based on the quantity of electricity fur- 
nished, as indicated by a meter. During the first ten 
years street lights, which were now kept burning dur- 
ing the whole of each night, were supplied at the rate 
of one hundred dollars each by the year. At the ex- 
piration of this period the price was reduced to ninety- 
five dollars for each light. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 215 

By extending its system to other towns in the Pan- 
ther Creek Valley, the company has been enabled to 
give still cheaper service, and is now providing street 
lights at an annual cost of sixty-five dollars each. 
George M. Davies is the president of the company. 

From the beginning Lansford has been supplied 
with water by the Panther Valley Water Company 
which is controlled by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 
Company. 

The town is protected from fire by the American Fire 
Company, organized in 1887, but not incorporated until 
1894, 

In 1894 a brick building costing twelve thousand dol- 
lars was erected by the borough. This is the home of 
the fire department and the meeting place of town 
council. 

The municipality has always been liberal in its sup- 
port of the fire department, which is well organized 
and equipped with modern apparatus. 

The sewer system has been extended from time to 
time in keeping with the growth of the town. 

Much of the revenue required in the making of mu- 
nicipal improvements has been derived from taxing 
the underground wealth, a source of income which but 
few towns have. 

The mammoth vein here is in some instances three 
hundred feet thick, while shafts have been sunk to the 
depth of a thousand feet without reaching the basin, 
or the bottom of the coal. 

Among the important factors which have contributed 
to make Lansford a town of homes have been the build- 
ing and loan associations, the first of which, in this 
vicinity, was the Fidelity, of Summit Hill. A number 
of others have followed, and all have been honestly 
and successfully managed. 



21g HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

The Panther Valley Building and Loan Association, 
now performing useful service, was organized in 1903. 

The Miners' Bank, which had previously existed at 
Summit Hill, was removed to Lansford in 1880, and 
was the first monetary institution in the place. The 
bank failed in 1883. 

The First National Bank of Lansford was chartered 
in 1899. Its capital in the beginning was fifty thousand 
dollars, which was doubled in 1909. The bank now has 
deposits of over a million dollars, and has a large sur- 
plus fund. The present building was erected in 1904. 
A. J. Thomas has been the president of the institution 
from the start, while W. H. Kohler and C. Fred Kline 
have served as cashiers. 

The Citizens' National Bank was chartered in 1903, 
having a capital of fifty thousand dollars. It did busi- 
ness in rented quarters until 1909, when a splendid 
building, costing forty thousand dollars was built and 
occupied. A surplus of over thirty thousand dollars 
has been earned by the bank. T. J. Nusbaum and M. 
A. Whetstone originally served as president and cash- 
ier, respectively. Andrew Brislin is now the president, 
while W. J. Davis is cashier. 

A number of private bankers, dealing principally 
with foreigners, also do a thriving business, while a 
dime savings bank has recently been established. 

The Carbon Telephone Company, having numerous 
subscribers in Lansford, Summit Hill and Coal Dale, 
had its inception nearly twenty years ago. Originally 
it was termed the Summit Hill and Lansford Tele- 
phone Company. The present company, the stock of 
which is held locally, was formed in 1899. William 
Schneider was the first president. The company's 
lines connect with those of the Consolidated and the 
American Union telephone companies. 




/^ 



r^ 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 217 

The first newspaper to be published here was the 
Summit Hill and Lansford Record, first issued from 
Summit Hill. It had been in existence less than five 
years, when, in 1880, its owner and editor, the late 
J. W. Malloy established himself in Lansford. He was 
one of the best known among Carbon county's news- 
paper men, and wielded a trenchant pen. His death 
occurred in 1910, since which time the active manage- 
ment of the paper has devolved upon William Gormley. 
It was formerly Democratic, but in recent years it has 
manifested independent tendencies. It is issued 
weekly. 

The Lansford Leader, which is also a weekly, began 
its career under its present proprietor and editor, Lin- 
coln Davis, in the spring of 1893. This is an inde- 
pendent Republican journal. Both papers maintain 
large job printing establishments. 

Lansford is connected with the neighboring towns 
by means of an excellent electric railway system. 
This road was placed in operation between here and 
Tamaqua, Schuylkill county, on October 25, 1897. 

The pioneer hotel man of Lansford was George 
Evans, who opened the Lansford House. He was the 
father of Thomas Evans, now conducting that popular 
hostelry. George H. Holvey built the Mansion House, 
while the American House was built by John B. Jones. 

The religious history of Lansford begins with the 
Welsh Congregational church. This congregation 
was organized in 1848. The church edifice, built in 
1850, was dedicated on Christmas Day. The most in- 
fluential person in the establishment of the church was 
David Williams, who has already been refered to in 
connection with the early development of the mines 
hereabouts. He was a man of good moral character 
and organized the first Sunday school in the place. 



218 HISTORY OF CAKBON TOUNTY. 

This preceded the church, of which it was the fore-run- 
ner, by about ten years. From the beginning, services 
in this church have been conducted in the Welsh 
tongue. For nearly a generation there was no other 
church in the town, and people of other denominations 
worshipped here or attended services at Summit Hill 
and elsewhere. The original building, which has 
several times been remodeled and improved, is still 
standing. The first regular pastor of the congrega- 
tion was Rev. William Thomas. Rev. F. Tilo Evans 
has been stationed here for more than twenty years. 

The English Congregational church was organized 
in 1872 in response to the demands of those who 
wished to hear preaching in the English language, and 
who had formerly attended the Welsh church. 

The present building was dedicated in 1881 by Rev. 
Henry AVard Beecher, the famous Brooklyn divine. 

Many of the Lansford churches were established as 
missions by the churches of Summit Hill. First among 
the number was the First Baptist church, founded 
about 1872. Its first building stood where the West 
Ward school house now stands. In 1888 the church 
was torn down and rebuilt on the present location. 
Rev. Allen J. Morton was the first pastor. 

In 1880 Rev. Robert H. Kline, rector of St. Philip's 
church at Summit Hill, began holding services here. 
The mission thus established resulted in the organiza- 
tion of Trinity Episcopal church, the cornerstone of 
which was laid on Trinity Sunday, 1896. The building 
was not consecrated until 1899. 

Members of the Evangelical Association held ser- 
vices at this place as early as 1872. 

A church building put up in 1887 was later sold. The 
United Evangelical church was built in 1895. 



HISTORY OF CARBON (JOUNTY. 219 

St. Michaers (Slovak) Roman Catholic congrega- 
tion was started by Rev. William Heinan, of East 
Maucli Chunk, in 1891. The building which was then 
begun was destroyed by fire in 1907. Preparations 
were at once made by the pastor, Rev. Joseph Kas- 
parek, and his people to erect a more substantial 
structure. This new building, costing one-hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, was dedicated with pomp and 
pageantry by Archbishop Edmund F. Prendergast on 
Thanksgiving Day, 1911. 

St. John's Greek Catholic congregation was organ- 
ized in 1892, when a frame building was put up. A 
large brick edifice erected in 1906 was destroyed by 
fire three years later. Under Rev. Gabriel Martyak, 
the pastor in charge, the present magnificent building 
of butf brick was completed, the corner-stone having 
been laid in 1910. 

The first Methodist church here stood in the woods 
east of the town, later being removed to the site of the 
present building, which was dedicated in 1890 by 
Chaplain C. C. McCabe. 

Emmanuel's Reformed church was started as a mis- 
sion of St. Paul's, of Summit Hill, by Rev. A. P. Horn 
in 1894-. Services were first held in the Lansford Ly- 
ceum. 

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran church came into 
being during the same year, belonging to the charge at 
Summit Hill, and being organized by Rev. H. D. Sie- 
bott. The present building was erected in 1895. 

A Sunday school which was started by Nathan Pat- 
terson in 1851, and of which Andrew Weir was the first 
superintendent, was the forerunner of the First Pres- 
byterian church, organized in 1896. A church building 
was not put up until. 1901, while Rev. Alexander D. 
Bateman was the first regular pastor. Both the Sun- 



220 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

day school and the church have always been self-sup- 
porting. 

St. John's (Slovak) Evangelical Lutheran church 
was started as a mission in 1903, and St. Peter's and 
St. Paul's Roman Catholic church was begun four 
years later. 

St. Ann's Roman Catholic church was attended as a 
mission of St. Joseph's, of Summit Hill, until early in 
1909, when St. Ann's was constituted a separate parish, 
and the present pastor. Rev. H. J. Bowen, appointed. 
Ground was broken for the new church building in Sep- 
tember, 1911, while the corner-stone was laid by Arch- 
bishop Prendergast on Thanksgiving Day, of the same 
year. The style of the new church, which is not yet 
completed, is Romanesque. It is built of buff brick, 
with terra cotta trimmings. 

Most of the fraternal and beneficial societies com- 
mon to this portion of the state have been established 
here. In 1884 the Lansford Beneficial Fund was insti- 
tuted by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company; 
any of the employes of the company participate in its 
benefits if they are so unfortunate as to be injured at 
their work. The company annually contributes a cer- 
tain sum to this fund, based on the production of coal ; 
the men also contribute their just proportion. Hun- 
dreds of thousands of dollars have been raised and dis- 
tributed under the rules governing this fund, which in 
its practical workings has proven to be one of the 
most worthy institutions. 

There is, of course, little industrial activity in Lans- 
ford aside from that connected with the mining and 
shipping of coal. Several hundred men are employed 
in the repair shops of the company, and an immense 
power plant generates electricity sufficient for the 
needs of the whole Panther Creek Valley. The manu- 




St. Ann's Church, Lansfokd. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 221 

facture of coal briquettes, composed of a mixture of 
coal dirt and tar, intended for fuel, has also been be- 
gun. During recent years the town has been benefited 
by the concentration of the company's offices here, 
while the opening of the line of the Lehigh and New 
England Railroad to this point will further improve 
conditions. 

The Century Throwing Company, operating a silk 
mill, located its plant here in 1904. Alexander Mc- 
Lane has been the local head. 

In 1906 the Lansford Shirt Factory was opened by 
Wallace Drumheller and Charles K. Walton. These 
are the only independent industries of consequence. 

When the first separate census of the place was 
taken, in 1880, the population was a little over two 
thousand. It now amounts to about ten thousand. 
These figures indicate the healthy growth which the 
town has had. But there is promise of still greater 
development, and Lansford looks confidently into the 
future from her fortunate position over the richest bed 
of anthracite in the world. 

LAUSANNE TOWNSHIP. 

Lausanne township may be likened to a fond and 
over-indulgent father, who, originally rich in the pos- 
session of a princely estate, has given away so much 
of his substance to his children as to be himself re- 
duced to comparative poverty in his old age. 

It is now the most sparsely populated township in 
the county, while its area is but a small fraction of that 
which it contained in 1808, the year of its organiza- 
tion. Anterior to that time it was a part of Penn 
township, which embraced all that portion of North- 
ampton county lying north of the Blue Ridge and west 
of the Lehigh river. 



222 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUN TY. 

In 1808 Penn township was divided into East Penn, 
West Penn and Lausanne, the last named being the 
northern part of that portion now in Carbon county. 
In 1827, a small portion of the southern part of the 
township was taken off to form Mauch Chunk town- 
ship. In 1842 another limb was lopped off to form 
Banks township, while Packer township was carved 
from the dwindling territory of Lausanne in 1847. In 
1863 it was further dismembered by the erection of the 
borough of Weatherly, while the final slice was taken 
from it in 1875, when Lehigh towoiship was formed. 

Lausanne township is bounded on the north by Lu- 
zerne county, on the east by Lehigh township, on the 
south by Lehigh and the borough of AVeatherly, and on 
the west by Banks township. It is about six miles in 
length, and averages nearly two and one-half miles in 
breadth. It is watered by Laurel and Hazle creeks and 
by Spruce run. The character of the land is mountain- 
ous and is but little cultivated. The first permanent 
settlement of any consequence made within the present 
limits of the township was made by the Buck Mountain 
Coal Company, which was chartered June 16, 1836. 
Samuel L. Shober, Jacob F. Bunting, Benjamin Kug- 
ler, William Richardson, and Asa Lansford Foster, all 
Philadelphians, excepting the latter, who was from 
Carbon county, formed the company. Operations 
were begun three years later, while in the month of 
November, 1840, the first coal was shipped. 

The mines were located on the summit of the 
Spring mountain, while the breaker was erected at 
Rockport, five miles distant from the mines. A rail- 
road, connecting the two points, was built, and the 
loaded cars ran down to Rockport by gravity. Mules 
were at first employed to haul the empty cars back to 
the mines; but, in the course of time, these were re- 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 223 

placed by a four-wheeled, wood-burning locomotive. 
This locomotive was built at Philadelphia, and was 
shipped by rail from there to Tamaqua. There it was 
loaded upon a heavy wagon, owned by the Lehigh Coal 
and Navigation Company, and hauled through Quakake 
Valley to Rockport by teams. To secure the wagon 
from getting beyond control while descending the hills 
along the route, a cable was fastened to it, and one end 
was snubbed about a convenient tree. In many in- 
stances, while paying out slack to allow the wagon to 
proceed down the hills, the bark was worn from the 
trees around which the cable was fastened, and years 
afterwards, encircled by the rings thus formed, they 
stood as mute reminders of this interesting feat in 
transportation. 

The breaker stood on the banks of Laurel creek, 
while its machinery was driven by an ordinary, twenty- 
five-foot, overshot water-wheel. With one exception, 
this was the only breaker in the anthracite region, so 
far as can be ascertained, that was operated in this 
manner. The coal was shipped to market from Rock- 
port on the Lehigh Canal. 

The flood of 1841 swept away the canal, and it was 
necessary to suspend operations until it had been re- 
paired. 

Rockport remained the shipping point for the com- 
pany until 1862, when the canal was again destroyed 
by flood. 

Following the freshet of that year, the Hazleton Coal 
Company built a railroad to the mines at Buck Moun- 
tain, and it was by this route that the coal there pro- 
duced was thereafter shipped. This road connected 
with what is now the Lehigh Valley Railroad, at Hazle 
Creek Junction, about two miles from Weatherly. 



224 HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

The coal company built a hotel at Buck Mountain in 
1843, which was successively kept by William Koons, 
James McGinty, and William Boyle. A postoffice was 
established at about the time of the building of the rail- 
road to the mines. A store, two schoolhouses and an 
office building were also erected. 

The coal produced at Buck Mountain was of the very 
finest grade, and was largely used by the United States 
Navy during the Civil War, because of its excellent 
steaming qualities and the almost total absence of 
smoke attendant upon its use. This rendered vessels 
supplied with fuel from Buck Mountain less conspicu- 
ous as targets for an enemy's guns than would other- 
wise have been the case, also facilitating secrecy in the 
movements of the ships. 

Erricson's Monitor, in her crucial battle with the re- 
doubtable Merrimac, carried Buck Mountain coal in 
her bunkers. 

The mines at Buck Mountain were abandoned on 
November 28, 1883, it being the belief at that time that 
the supply of available coal had been about exhausted. 
The property was subsequently purchased by the firm 
of Coxe, Brothers & Company for the sum of twenty- 
two thousand dollars, but the mines were allowed to 
remain idle, and what had previously been a thriving 
town became a deserted village. 

The total number of tons of coal shipped from this 
place from 1841 to the time when operations were sus- 
pended was three million, four hundred and sixty-five 
thousand. The company at various times employed 
from three to six-hundred men. 

Buck Mountain, in the day of its prosperity, was one 
of the best villages in the coal fields, and those of its 
former inhabitants who still remain cherish the mem- 
ory of the old spot in their hearts. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 225 

The Lehigh Valley Coal Company now controls the 
property at Buck Mountain and preparations are in 
progress for the resumption of mining there on an 
important scale. It has developed that the mines there, 
so far from being exhausted, contain deposits of coal 
that will last for many years. 



CHAPTER XV. 



LEHIGH TOWNSHIP. 



A large portion of Lehigh township was originally- 
covered by dense forests of evergreen trees. Its terri- 
tory was embraced within Lausanne township from 
1808 until 1875, when it was organized as a separate 
division of the county. 

The Quakake creek, flowing eastwardly through the 
township, empties into the Lehigh at Penn Haven. 
Spruce, Laurel and Indian runs form a stream which 
flows southeastwardly and empties into the Lehigh be- 
low Rockport. Leslies run rises near the Luzerne 
county line, and joins the Lehigh at Leslie's Run Sta- 
tion, in the northern part of the township. The Broad 
mountain constitutes the southern portion of the town- 
ship, while the Laurytown Valley passes between it and 
the Bald Ridge, which reaches across the township 
from east to west. 

A state road, which ran from the Spring Mountain 
Hotel, in Packer township, through Weatherly, and 
thence to White Haven, was the first highway of any 
consequence. The next in importance was the White 
Haven and Lausanne turnpike which was begim in 
1840. The Central Railroad of New Jersey, fromerly 
the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, and the Le- 
high Valley Railroad follow the Lehigh river along the 
eastern border of the township, while the Beaver 
Meadow and Hazleton and the Mahanoy divisions of 
the Lehigh Valley system run through the township 
on the banks of Quakake creek, connecting with the 
main line at Penn Haven Junction. 

226 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 227 

The Moravians at one time owned a tract of timber 
land where Rockport is now located. The timber on 
this tract was purchased by the Lehigh Coal and Navi- 
gation Company in 1824. The company erected several 
saw-mills and a nmnber of dwellings for laborers at 
this point. The settlement, which was situated on a 
high bluff, was called Laurytown. The timber was 
slid down the mountain side to the mills, and after 
being sawed was rafted down the Lehigh to Mauch 
Chunk and other places. 

The raftsmen returned to the mills on foot, traveling 
the "Indian Path," which led from Gnadenhiitten to 
Wyoming. Much of the timber that was cut in this 
vicinity was used in the construction of canal boats and 
other improvements incident to the operations of the 
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. 

The Buck Mountain Coal Company began the build- 
ing of a railroad from Rockport to its mines, about five 
miles distant, in the fall of 1839. A tunnel, two hun- 
dred yards in length, from the foot of an inclined plane, 
through the mountain to the river, was driven by Asa 
L. Foster. The work of constructing the tunnel and the 
railroad was completed in 1840, and, in November of 
that year, the Buck Mountain Coal Company shipped 
its first boat load of coal to Philadelphia on the Lehigh 
Canal. 

Rockport was once popularly known as "Grog Hol- 
low," which unregenerate designation was applied to 
the place in consequence of the bibulous proclivities 
and general carousing of the laborers who were sta- 
tioned there during the building of the canal in the late 
thirties. Lumbering operations ceased here a short 
time prior to the opening of the mines at Buck Moun- 
tain. 



228 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

After the completion of the railroad to the mines, 
one hundred thousand tons of coal were annually 
shipped from this point until 1862. 

The memorable flood of that year washed away the 
canal, and the coal mined at Buck Mountain was there- 
after shipped to market by rail. 

The postoffice at Kockport was established about the 
year 1830, Samuel Wolf, who was also a tavern-keeper 
on the line of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike, 
being the first postmaster. In 1836 he was succeeded 
in the postoffice by Asa Packer, who in turn was suc- 
ceeded by R. Q. Butler, two years later. It was during 
the term of Mr. Butler that the name of the postoffice 
was changed from Laurytown to Rockport. The pres- 
ent postmaster is H. H. Sloat, who has held the office 
for many years. It was during his administration that 
the free delivery of mail throughout the township was 
begun by the government. 

Samuel Wolf kept a store at Rockport from 1830 to 
1836, when he disposed of the business to Asa and R. 
W. Packer, who conducted the establishment until the 
completion of their canal contract. A. L. Foster also 
kept this store for a short time. J. G. Eadie, now, and 
for many years past, a resident of Weatheriy, kept a 
store at Rockport from 1866 until 1869. 

Rockport, while formerly a thriving and prosperous 
town, is to-day practically a deserted village. For 
romantic natural scenery, however, the locality cannot 
easily be suri)assed, and it is yearly increasing in favor 
as a summer resort. Building-stone of excellent qual- 
ity abounds in this vicinity, the stone for the building 
of the present court house at Mauch Chunk having been 
quarried here. A Methodist church was organized at 
Rockport about 1851. Bishop John H. Vincent, des- 
tined to achieve international fame as a Sunday school 




Onoko Fai.i-s, Glen Onoko. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 229 

worker and as the head of the Chautauqua Scientific 
and Literary Association, preached in this church 
when but nineteen years of age. 

St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church in the Laury- 
town Valley was organized a year earlier. It is under 
the jurisdiction of the parish at Weatherly, and during 
the pastorate of Rev. F. X. Wastl was repaired and 
improved. A union church was erected at Rockport in 
1894 by the members of the Reformed and Lutheran 
denominations. The property is now owned by the 
Reformed people, Rev. A. M. Masonheimer being the 
pastor in charge. 

Penn Haven was in 1838 made a shipping point by 
the Hazleton Coal Company. The Beaver Meadow 
Railroad was used from that year until 1852. A road 
was built from Hazle Creek Bridge to the mountain top 
at Penn Haven after the freshet of 1850, and the coal 
was conveyed to the river by means of two inclined 
planes twelve hundred feet in length. These were 
later abandoned. It is at Penn Haven Junction that 
the Mahanoy and the Beaver Meadow and Hazleton 
divisions of the Lehigh Valley Railroad diverge from 
the main line. 

Glen Onoko, which has for many years been one of 
the leading attractions in this part of Pennsylvania for 
pleasure seekers, is situated in Lehigh township. The 
improvements here were made by the Lehigh Valley 
Railroad Company. 

There are three school houses in the township, one 
at Penn Haven, another at Rockport, and one near the 
farm of the Middle Coal Field Poor District. 

The Rockport Rural Telephone Company was organ- 
ized in 1910, and its line, traversing the township, con- 
nects with the Bell system at "Weatherly. 



230 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

LEHIGETON BOROUGH. 

Before its incorporation as a borough, Lehighton 
formed a part of Mahoning township, by which it is 
bounded on all sides except the east, where the Lehigh 
river forms the boimdary line. 

The first settlement here was that made by the 
Moravians in 1746. Gnadenhiitten mission, which was 
then established, occupying the present site of South 
Lehighton. This was also the first settlement made by 
white men in Carbon county, which then belonged to 
Bucks, one of the three original counties of Pennsyl- 
vania. 

How the Moravians came to establish this mission, 
the success with which their unselfish labors was 
crowned for nearly a decade, and the tragic fate which 
befell them when the Indians, smarting from the 
wrongs and injustices which had been heaped upon 
them by the greedy proprietaries of the province and 
by the unscrupulous portion of the settlers, took the 
war path in the autumn of 1755 and indiscriminately 
slew both friend and foe, has already been told in de- 
tail. Scarcely a trace exists to-day of this ill-fated 
settlement excepting the graveyard, where repose the 
remains of the victims of the massacre of Gnaden- 
hiitten. 

In 1794, the land on which Lehighton is built was 
largely owned by Colonel Jacob Weiss, a veteran of the 
Eevolution, and another man, named William Henry. 
It appears that thus early it was recognized that a 
town would some day be built at this point, since Weiss 
and Henry had a portion of the ground laid out for 
that purpose. In the center of their plot was the town 
square, which was reserved for public use. A number 
of lots were sold in 1794, while other conveyances were 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 231 

made in the year 1800, but it i§ not definitely estab- 
lished who these first purchasers were. 

A bridge was built across the Lehigh in 1804, and a 
road was then constructed from here to the place where 
the "Landing Tavern" was later erected, at the foot 
of the Broad mountain. The Lehigh and Susquehanna 
Turnpike Company was incorporated about this time, 
and the road opened by this company reached from 
Berwick, on the Susquehanna, to Easton. There was a 
great deal of travel along this route, and taverns were 
established at regular intervals. Lehighton became 
one of the stop])ing places on this road in 1809, when 
John Hagenbuch built a tavern on the site now occu- 
pied by the Exchange Hotel. He came from Sieg- 
fried's Bridge, then known as Siegfried's Ferry, 
Northampton county. For many years he continued as 
the landlord of this tavern, and was succeeded by his 
son, Reuben Hagenbuch. Nicholas Fuller opened a 
tavern near the bridge in 1814, remaining its landlord 
for a long period. 

David Heller started a tannery near Hagenbuch 's 
tavern prior to 1820. John Davis established a store 
about this time where the residence of the late Joseph 
Obert now stands. 

In 1825 Daniel Snyder erected a grist mill at the 
mouth of Mahoning creek. He conducted the mill for 
many years. John Koons was his successor, and he 
sold the propertj" to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Com- 
pany. The growth of the town was slow until the 
building of the Lehigh Canal through this region, in 
1828-20. The canal contributed materially to the de- 
velopment of Lehighton and the surrounding country. 
The fertile farming districts lying adjacent to the vil- 
lage were now fast growing in population and impor- 
tance, and this was an added factor in the upbuilding 
of the settlement. 



232 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

In 1855, the Lehigh Valley Railroad was completed 
from Mauch Chunk to Easton, and early in the sixties 
the company established its shops and yards at Pack- 
erton. Many of the employes at this place built their 
homes in Lehighton. On March 16, 1864, the Lehigh 
and Susquehanna Railroad Company, later absorbed 
by the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey, was 
authorized to extend its line from Mauch Chunk to 
Easton. With the completion of this road Lehighton 
took another step forward, and on January 2, 1866, the 
town was organized as a borough, John Lentz becom- 
ing the first chief burgess. Ten years later, when the 
census was taken, Lehighton had a population of 
1,485. The place has grown steadily since that time, 
and is now one of the most thriving communities of the 
Lehigh Valley. 

One of the leading enterprises of Lehighton is the 
packing establishment of the Joseph Obert Company. 
The founder of this industry was Joseph Obert, a na- 
tive of Germany. He began as a butcher in 1865, soon 
making himself master of a large business. In 1875 his 
plant was destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt and en- 
larged. Mr. Obert died in 1896, and during the suc- 
ceeding ten years the enterprise was conducted by his 
executors. The Joseph Obert Company, of which 
Charles W. Obert is president, and Henry B. Kennell 
secretary and treasurer, was then incorporated. 

The Lehigh Stove and Manufacturing Company, had 
its inception in 1867. The chief promoter of the enter- 
prise, and the jjresident of the company for many 
years, was G. B. Linderman. C. 0. Skeer, Robert 
Klotz, William Lilly, W. B. Mack, C. W. Anthony, and 
A. G. Brodhead were among the early stock-holders of 
the company. About one hundred men are here em- 
ployed, and ''Lehigh" stoves, ranges, and furnaces find 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 233 

their way to many quarters of the world. W. K. But- 
ler is now the dominant figure in the affairs of the con- 
cern. 

Lehighton has in recent years attained prominence 
in textile manufacturing, the first and largest of the 
mills now located there being the silk throwing mill of 
The Baer Company, situated at Bridge and S. Seventh 
streets. This enterprise was established by Eugene W. 
Baer at Paterson, N. J., and was originally conducted 
under the title of Eugene Baer & Company. In 1898 
the plant was removed to Lehighton, where the present 
four-story brick building had been built by the com- 
pany. In 1903, Mr. Baer purchased the interest of his 
father, Jacob F. Baer, and the company was incor- 
porated as The Baer Company, Eugene W. Baer, being 
its president and principal stockholder. The two 
upper floors of the building owned by The Baer Com- 
pany are occupied by the Helvetia Silk Company, the 
headquarters of which are at Paterson, N. J. 

The Lehighton Lace Company was incorporated in 
1905 with a capital stock of $150,000. P. M. Graul, 
W. D. Boyer, C. J. Kistler, and M. 0. Kuntz were those 
most influential in establishing this industry, which em- 
ploys about sixty operatives. The president of the 
company is W. D. Boyer, while P. M. Graul is the gen- 
eral manager, secretary and treasurer. The plant oc- 
cupies the site where Daniel Olewine, prominent in the 
early annals of the town, erected a tannery in 1859. 
This establishment was destroyed by fire in 1873. 

The Carbon Silk Mill Company was organized in 1906 
by 0. F. Acker, D. A. Kehrig, and P. F. Rehrig. D. A. 
Rehrig has been the president of this company since 
its beginning. From seventy-five to one hundred people 
are here employed, the mill being now operated under 
lease by P. F. Rehrig and W. B. Lovatt. 



234 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

A smaller silk throwing mill, recently opened, is 
that of Howard Diefenderfer. 

The Lehighton Shirt Factory was established in 1898 
by New York capitalists. 

The Crescent Stove and Manufacturing Company 
was organized in 1904, Edward E. Walters being its 
president, and Charles H. Bower the principal stock- 
holder. 

The Lehighton Brick Company was formed in 1906 
by Ira Seidle and Dallas Bowman. The plant operated 
by this company is owned by William S. Koch, who 
built it in 1899. ' 

The Carbon Iron W^orks Company was incorporated 
in 1911. W. S. Koch is its president. 

As has already been said, the first hotel to be opened 
in Lehighton was that of John Hagenbuch, in 1809. 
This property changed hands four or five times until 
1867, when it was purchased hj Thomas Mantz, who 
tore down the old building and erected the present Ex- 
change Hotel on the site. He is still the owner. The 
tavern erected by Nicholas Fuller in 1814, near the 
bridge which crosses the Lehigh on the way to Weiss- 
port was sold to George Esch in 1855. He removed the 
original structure and put up the Valley House in its 
place. This hotel has been conducted by E. W. Clauss 
since 1891. 

Jacob Metzgar built the Carbon House in 1842, and 
opened it as a tavern under the sign of the Eagle. It 
has had many landlords, and is now owned by the 
David Ebbert Estate. 

The Mansion House was built by J. A. Horn in 1879. 
The present proprietor is A. P. Anthony. 

The Lehighton postoffice was established on October 
1, 1812, John Pryor, Jr., being the first postmaster. 
Twenty-three others have since served in that capacity. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 235 

John Davis who has already been mentioned as the 
first store-keeper in the town, held the office from 1824 
to 1836, when he removed to Easton, where he became 
the president of the Easton National Bank. His term 
of service was exceeded only by that of Thomas S. 
Beck, who held the office for thirteen years, though not 
successively, and by that of Henry H. Peters, who 
served from 1871 to 1885. 

No one knows where the office was first opened; but 
most of the postmasters kept it at their places of busi- 
ness until 1898, when it was was located as at present 
by B. J. Kuntz. 

In 1903 the only rural route beginning at this office 
was established. It extends through the Mahoning 
Valley. This was the first postoffice to be designated 
as a postal savings bank in the Lehigh Valley, being 
authorized to receive deposits during the summer of 
1911. 

David McCormick succeeded W. W. Reber as post- 
master in March, 1911. 

A log schoolhouse opened by the Moravians about 
1820 was also used for church purposes. The school 
was controlled by a board of trustees, and was kept 
during the winter months for many years. 

A generation after the establishment of this institu- 
tion, Mahoning township, of which Lehighton then 
formed a part, accepted the free school system, and 
other houses were erected for school purposes. One of 
these was opened on Iron street about 1850. In 1853 
another was built on the town square, which was used 
until 1873. Another was located on Pine street. 

The present high school building was built in 1873 at 
a cost of $45,000. For a time all of the schools in the 
borough were kept here. The First Ward building, a 
modern brick structure of eight rooms, was put up in 



236 HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

1896. It cost $30,000. The Third Ward building, the 
best equipped in the borough, was built in 1902. The 
high school is an accredited ''second grade" institu- 
tion having a three years ' course. The schools of the 
borough have been under the direction of a supervisory 
principal since 1908. 

A parochial school conducted under the auspices of 
St. Peter's and St. Paul's Roman Catholic church, was 
established in 1869. About eighty pupils, taught by 
three Sisters of St. Francis, are in attendance here. 

Among the institutions of learning not having the 
support of the general public, was the Carbon Acad- 
emy, which was first conducted by R. F. Hofford at 
Weissport. The flood of 1862 carried away the build- 
ing in which the academy was housed, and during the 
same year a new building was erected by Hofford in 
Lehighton. In 1863 he was chosen as superintendent 
of schools of the county, and some years thereafter, A. 
S. Christine assumed control of the academy. Pro- 
fessor Christine died in 1868, and the school was closed, 
though several unsuccessful attempts were made to 
re-establish it. 

Excepting the Moravians, it appears that the Re- 
formed and Lutheran people were the first to hold 
regular church services in this locality. As early as 
1800 Reformed ministers traveled through this region 
and preached in the old Moravian chapel. The names 
of Rev. Thomas Pomp, Rev. W. F. Vandersloot, Rev. 
William Helfrich, and Rev. Charles Becker are found 
on certificates still in possession of members of the 
older families. 

On March 23, 1818, a union congregation, composed 
of people of the Reformed and Lutheran denomina- 
tions, was organized. Services were held in the Mo- 
ravian chapel. After this building began to fall into 




Zion's Reformed Church, Lehigiiton. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 237 

disrepair, the place of worship was changed to a school- 
house on South Third street. It was in this building 
that the first Sunday school in Lehighton was 
organized. 

Until 1838 the religious interests of both Lehighton 
and Weissport centered in South Lehighton. During 
the ensuing thirty years the common place of worship 
was at Weissport. Jacob's Keformed and Lutheran 
church was built at the latter place in 1839. This was 
the mother of the churches of these denominations in 
Lehighton. 

Prior to 1870 a union Sunday school had been organ- 
ized in a small building in the upper park. Later the 
school was kept in the Iron street schoolhouse. 
Thomas and William Kemmerer and Frederick Brink- 
man were the leaders in this movement. This school 
afforded a rallying place for the Reformed and Lu- 
theran people of Lehighton. An effort was made by 
these people to build a union church, but it proved abor- 
tive and separate houses of worship were erected. 

The congregation of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran 
church was organized on January 5, 1873, by Rev. D. 
K. Kepner. The corner stone of the building which 
was erected was laid on the first of June of that year. 
Rev. J. H. Kuder has been the pastor of this church 
since 1882. 

Zion's Reformed congregation was organized on 
April 29, 1893, the meeting for that purpose having 
been held in the building of the Carbon Academy. All 
of the charter members were connected with Jacob's 
church at Weissport prior to the forming of the new 
congregation. Rev. Abraham Bartholomew was the 
first pastor, serving the church at Weissport, as well. 

Services were held in the academy building until 
1876, when a church edifice was built. During 1902-03, 



238 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

under the pastorate of Rev. D. A. Winter, the church 
was remodeled and enlarged at a ccst of more than 
$27,000. The Sunday school of this congregation is at 
present the strongest in the county. George E. Gray 
has been its superintendent, since 1897. 

The Presbyterian church of Lehighton had its begin- 
nings in the efforts of a pious Polish woman, named 
Fredericka Misca. She came to this country about 
1825, and purchased two tracts of land from the Mo- 
ravians, embracing the site of the old Gnadenhiitten 
Mission, for which she agreed to pay $500.00. She be- 
came inspired with the idea of building a new church 
on the site of the one burned down by the Indians, and 
accordingly began to solicit money. She made long 
journeys through the country and visited many cities, 
selling prints depicting the massacre of Gnadenhiitten, 
the proposed church, and herself. For a time she lived 
in this locality. A gentleman named George Douglass, 
of New York, touched by her devotion and sincerity, 
generously gave her a sum of money sufficient to take 
up the mortgage against the property. She thereupon 
executed to him a trust deed, dated November 1, 1833, 
making him trustee of all she possessed, and stipula- 
ting that the avails of the propertj^ should be used for 
the construction of a church at Lehighton for the use 
of the Presbyterian denomination. The building was 
begun, the foundation walls and window frames put 
up, and the necessary lumber hauled on the ground. 
But from one of her journeys Misca never returned. 
The fate that befell her is shrouded in mystery; it is 
thought that she was murdered and robbed. This 
church was never completed. 

In 1852 Douglass transferred his trust to a number 
of prominent citizens of Mauch Chunk. A portion of 
the property was sold by them, and the proceeds placed 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 239 

at the disposal of the Presbyterian church at Mauch 
Chunk, the congregation of wliich was then gathering 
funds for the erection of a house of worship. 

In 1870 an act of Assembly was passed enabling the 
trustees to sell the remainder of the property. The 
Gnadenhiitten Cemetery Association became the pur- 
chaser. In 1872 Rev. Jacob Beleville, the Presbyterian 
pastor at Mauch Chunk conceived the idea of building 
a church at Lehighton. As early as 1859 missionaries 
had preached to a small congregation here, meetings 
being held in the schoolhouse on Iron street. In ac- 
cordance with Rev. Beleville 's plans, the congregation 
was reorganized on the 12th of February, 1872, and the 
Misca fund was transferred to the trustees of the Le- 
highton congregation. A lot was procured and the 
corner stone of the church building was laid on the 
29th of May, 1873. It was dedicated on May 7, 1874, 
Rev. C. Earle preaching the dedicatory sermon. Dur- 
ing the pastorate of Rev. R. E. Reimer, who served 
from 1900 to 1905, the church was remodeled and im- 
proved. Rev. H. A. Smith, D.D., is the present pastor. 

The people of the Methodist Episcopal denomination 
began holding meetings in Lehighton about 1840. Serv- 
ices were occasionally conducted by missionaries, but 
usually the preachers came from Mauch Chunk. The 
society was organized in 1865, purchasing the Carbon 
Academy building, which was used until the erection 
of the present building in 1883. The church was dedi- 
cated on the 30th of September of that year. W. B. 
Durelle was the first regular preacher. 

St. Peter's and St. Paul's Roman Catholic church 
was organized in 1869. Rev. G. Frende, who resided in 
Lehighton and had other churches in charge, was the 
first pastor. Rev. William Heinan, who later became 
the minister of St. Joseph's Catholic church at East 



240 HISTOKY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

Mauch Chunk, and one of the best known members of 
the priesthood in this section of the State, succeeded 
Rev. Frende. This church was rebuilt under Rev. 
Francis Regnery, the present pastor. The corner- 
stone was laid on October 7, 1906. The church was 
completed and dedicated on September 1, 1*907, being 
blessed by Bishop E. F. Prendergast, now Archbishop 
of the Diocese of Philadelphia. It cost $30,000. 

The Ebenezer Church of the Evangelical Association 
was organized in 1872. Services were held in various 
places until 1876, when the present house of worship 
was completed. The church was dedicated by Bishop 
Thomas Bowman on the 21st of May of that year. The 
congregation has had about twenty pastors since that 
time. 

The Mennonite Brethren in Christ, who have gained 
a footing here came into existence in 1882. Rev. Wil- 
liam Gheman was the founder of the organization. 

Bethany United Evangelical church is the offspring 
of Ebenezer Church of the Evangelical Association. 
The society was formally organized on October 5, 1894, 
and a year later its house of worship was dedicated by 
Bishop Dubbs. 

Grace Lutheran church was organized on November 
29, 1903, Rev. Frank S. Kuntz served as the first pastor. 
A chapel costing $12,000 was soon erected, being dedi- 
cated on April 2, 1905. 

All Saints' Ejjiscopal church, which is a mission of 
St. Mark's church, of Mauch Chunk, had its beginnings 
in 1868, when the first public service of this denomina- 
tion was held in the Carbon Academy building. The 
present church edifice, one of the most magnificent in 
the county, was started in 1906, being the gift of Mary 
Packer Cummings, The corner stone was laid with im- 
pressive ceremonies on October the 10th of that year 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 241 

by Rt. Rev. Ethelbert Talbul, Bishop of Central Penn- 
sylvania. The consecration sermon was preached by 
Rt. Rev. Leighton Coleman, Bishop of Delaware, on 
September 30th, 1907. It was Bishop Coleman, then 
stationed at Mauch Chunk, who conducted the first 
Episcopal service in Lehighton. The church, together 
with the vicarage, cost $50,000. Both are constructed 
of graystone, quarried at Bowmanstown, while the 
trimmings are of Wyoming blue stone. Rev. A. A. 
Bresee has been the vicar from the beginning. 

The principal burying ground in Lehighton, and the 
oldest in the county, is the Gnadenhiitten Cemetery, 
which has already been mentioned as the resting place 
of the Moravians who were massacred by the Indians 
on the evening of November 24, 1755. From the year 
1820 the grounds were occasionally used as a place of 
interment by the people of the surrounding country. 
Fredericka Misca became the owner of the site about 
1830. Since 1870 the Gnadenhiitten Cemetery Associa- 
tion has been the owner. 

Lehighton 's first newspaper was called the Weekly 
News, started by O. M. Boyle, in January, 1872. Its 
publication was suspended in the fall of 1873. The 
initial issue of the Carbon Advocate bore the date of 
November 23, 1872. It was established by H. V. Mor- 
thimer, a veteran journalist. P. M. Graul became 
the owner of this paper in 1902. It has always been 
issued weekly, and has supported Democratic prin- 
ciples. 

The Lehighton Press began its career on April 21, 
1892, having been started by William C. Watson. On 
November 16, 1896, it passed to the ownership of 
David McCormick, under whose guidance it has be- 
come one of the most influential and prosperous weekly 
journals in the Lehigh Valley. Originally it contained 



242 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

four pages of seven columns. It has since doubled its 
size. The Press is staunchly Republican. 

The Evening Leader was established by George 
Morthimer, a son of the founder of the Advocate, on 
July 19, 1902. It is the only paper in the borough 
issued daily, and is an exponent of Democratic doc- 
trines. 

Lehighton's earliest fire company was organized on 
August 24, 1874. It had fifty charter members. H. V. 
Morthimer was chosen president; C. F. Horn, secre- 
tary, and P. T. Bradley, chief. Morthimer and Horn 
were the prime movers in the undertaking. The latter 
is still a member of the company. The borough build- 
ing is occupied by this organization. 

With the growth of the town, the need of additional 
protection against fire became apparent, resulting in 
the formation of Lehighton Engine Company No. 2. 
This company was permanently organized at Hoch- 
berg's Hotel on the evening of February 18, 1904. 
James I. Blakslee was elected president; E. W. Moser, 
vice president, and A. J. Snyder, secretary. 

Soon thereafter an emergency school house on Third 
street was leased and remodeled to meet the needs of 
the organization. For years this company gave Christ- 
mas entertainments to which the public of the region 
was admitted, and large sums of money were expended 
in purchasing gifts for the children. From its incep- 
tion this company has reflected the progressiveness 
and liberality which characterizes its president, James 
I. Blakslee. Under his leadership a new fire house, 
costing $18,000, was erected during 1910-11. It is one 
of the model buildings of its kind in Pennsylvania. It 
is of cement block and pressed brick, being two stories 
high. The structure was appropriately dedicated on 
February 21, 1911. The municipality, as such, was not 



' HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. " 243 

asked for financial aid in the undertaking. Besides 
the fire-fighting apparatus, this building contains a li- 
brary, gymnasium and every facility for social enter- 
tainment. In 1910 the company organized its own 
band, and it has succeeded in taking a prize at every 
gathering of firemen in which it has participated. 

Following the establishment of Engine Company No. 
2 the Lehighton fire department was organized, giving 
executive control to a single head in the event of fire. 
The chief of the department is Harry Trainer. 

The first building and loan association in the bor- 
ough was established about 1875, its offspring being 
the Lehighton Building and Loan Association and Le- 
highton Building and Loan Association No. 2. Philip 
Miller was the first president of these institutions. 
Both associations failed. 

The Lehigh Valley Building and Loan Association 
was incorporated on March 9, 1896, and has had a suc- 
cessful career. Several Inmdred homes have been 
wholly or partially built through its agency. George 
W. Diehl is the president of the association, while Ira 
E. Seidle is its secretary. 

The First National Bank of Lehighton was chartered 
on November 3, 1875, with a capital stock of $50,000. 
Daniel Olewine was elected president, and W. W. Bow- 
man, cashier. The institution was located in a portion 
of the residence of Joseph Obert until 1880, when quar- 
ters were secured in the old Stoecker building. In 1894 
a brick building alongside the present location was oc- 
cupied. On July 5, 1910, a new structure, costing 
$40,000, was opened for business. Thomas Kemmerer 
succeeded Daniel Olewine as president of the bank. 
He was followed by R. F. Hofford, while John Sea- 
boldt is now the head of the institution. John T. Sem- 



244 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

mel followed W. W. Bowman as cashier, and Henry J. 
Bretney now occupies that position. 

The Citizens' National Bank was organized on Oc- 
tober 29, 1902, with a capital stock of $60,000. It was 
first located in the Leuckel building, near the post- 
office. Early in 1910, a new building, valued at $45,000, 
was completed. The capital stock is now $100,000. 
Hon. C. H. Seidle, Eugene Baer and Henry B. Kennell 
have been the bank's presidents, while A. S. Beisel and 
A. F. Smith have filled the position of cashier. 

The Lehighton Water Supply Company was char- 
tered in 1889, Joseph Obert being chosen as its presi- 
dent. 

An artesian well was drilled at the head of Seventh 
street, but the supply obtained from this source was 
inadequate. A reservoir was then constructed at Long 
Run, Franklin township, about three miles from the 
town. Another reservoir has since been added at this 
point, besides one on Pine run. The water flows to 
Lehighton by gravity. This company also supplies 
Weissport and Union Hill with water. 

Both Lehighton and Weissport are electrically 
lighted by a plant which is owned by the first-named 
borough. It was operated but a short time by the mu- 
nicipality, when it was leased to elames I. Blakslee, 
under whose direction it has been conducted for about 
a decade. 

Lehighton is connected with Mauch Chunk by the 
line of the Carbon Transit Company. 

LOWER TOWAMENSING TOWNSHIP. 

Lower Towamensing ranks second in wealth and 
third in population among the townships of Carbon 
county. From present indications it seems destined to 
excel in both respects in the not distant future. It is 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 245 

bounded on the north by Franklin and Towamensing 
townships; on the east by Monroe county; on the 
south by the Blue mountains and Northampton county, 
and on the west by the Lehigh river and East Penn 
township. 

The Aquashicola creek, which rises in Monroe 
county, and flows eastwardly along the base of the 
Blue Ridge, emptying into the Lehigh at the gap of 
that name, is the principal stream within its bound- 
aries. 

The surface of the township is diversified, contain- 
ing a considerable portion of arable land, however. 
Sand, building stone, paint-ore and slate are among 
its natural products. 

Originally it formed a part of Towamensing town- 
ship, being separately organized in 1841. 

The earliest settler within the present limits of 
Lower Towamensing of whom any record remains was 
Nicholas Opplinger, who established himself near the 
mouth of the Aquashicola about the year 1750. The 
families of Boyer, Bauman, or Bowman, Mehrkem, and 
Strohl, whose descendants are still in the district, were 
among the earliest settlers. 

Conrad Mehrkem was a resident of the township 
prior to 1763. He lived in its western portion, near 
the Lehigh. 

Peter Strohl, the first of that family of which any- 
thing is definitely known, also came here about the 
same time, taking out a warrant for two hundred and 
forty-six acres of land, on a portion of which St. 
John 's Lutheran and Reformed church now stands. 

John Deter Bowman, the pioneer of the family of 
that name in America, became possessed of a tract of 
land in East Penn township in 1760, and he and his 
descendants prospered in this locality as hunters, trap- 



246 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

pers, lumbermen and farmers. Henry, one of the sons 
of this pioneer, settled near the point where Peter 
Strohl had earlier established himself. His brother 
Bernard also lived in the township. 

About the close of the Revolution, when £he Indians 
no longer menaced, as formerly, settlers came in 
greater numbers. At this period Jacob and Nich- 
olas Snyder came into possession of several hun- 
dred acres of land on the north side of the Aquashi- 
cola, embracing a mineral spring indicated on Scull's 
map of Pennsylvania in 1759. They built a saw-mill 
on the creek, near Lehigh Gap, which remained in 
operation until recent times. 

The property was surveyed in 1806, when the spring 
in question was analyzed by Thomas E. James, of the 
University of Pennsylvania. His report, substantiated 
by others, who certified to the healing properties of the 
waters of the spring, led to the erection of bath houses 
at this point, while for a short time the place was fre- 
quented as a health resort. 

In 1806, George Ziegenfuss, who pursued the voca- 
tion of a miller, came across the mountains and erected 
a grist mill where Millport now stands. He spent the 
remainder of his life at this place, where some of his 
descendants still remain. 

During the year 1808, Joseph Bauman purchased 
thirty acres of land at Lehigh Gap, erecting a stone 
building, in which he conducted a tavern until 1814, 
when he disposed of his property to Thomas Craig, in 
whose possession and that of his descendants it has 
been retained to the present. 

The first road to be constructed through this section 
was that running from Bethlehem to Gnadenhiitten, 
or modern Lehighton, where a mission was established 
by the Moravians. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 247 

This route had first been traveled by Count Zinzen- 
dorf in 1742, in which year he and his party negotiated 
a treaty with the Indians on the Mahoning. 

The road was built in 1747, and was used by the 
Moravians until the destruction of Gnadenhiitten, in 
the fall of 1755. It was traveled by Benjamin Frank- 
lin and his little army when they passed through here 
in January, 1756, on their way to build Fort Allen, and 
was employed as a military road until 1761. Originally 
running along the bank of the river, it was in some 
places changed to higher ground from time to time, 
in order to secure a better foundation. It became a 
part of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike in 1806. 

Another road, running parallel to the Aquashicola, 
and extending eastward into Monroe county, was built 
in 1756. This was a military road, connecting with 
Fort Norris, one of the defenses erected by the provin- 
cial government during the first Indian uprising. 

The religious history of Lower Towamensing begins 
at an early date. St. John's congregation, which is a 
union of the Lutheran and Reformed denominations, 
was organized on February 12, 1798. At this time the 
society arranged for the purchase of six acres of land 
from Michael Strohl, the consideration stipulated being 
twelve pounds. It was not until a year later that 
preparations were made for the erection of a church 
edifice. Nicholas Bachman contracted to do the car- 
penter work for twenty-five pounds. Hewed logs of 
pine and oak were used in the construction of the 
building. The cornerstone was laid on June 12, 1799, 
Rev. John H. Helfrich representing the Lutheran ele- 
ment, while Rev. John C. Bill participated on the part 
of the Reformed people. Ten years later the building 
was weather-boarded, prior to which time there had 
been no heating apparatus installed. This was one of 



248 HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

the first churches built by permanent settlers north of 
the Blue mountains. The present brick structure was 
erected in the year 1862. 

In the graveyard adjoining the church repose the 
remains of many of the early settlers of the town- 
ship. In this church, too, the first schools of the dis- 
trict were conducted, being supported and controlled 
by the Lutheran and Reformed denominations. But 
few other schools were opened until 1838, when the 
township accepted the free school system. About the 
year 1852, seven stone school houses were erected at 
various points in the district. 

A postoffice was established at Lehigh Gap in 1825, 
with Thomas Craig, Jr., in charge. This was the only 
postoffice in the township until 1850, when another was 
established at Little Gap, under Samuel Ziegenfuss. 

About the year 1819, David Heimbach, an iron- 
master of Lehigh county, in association with his son 
David, erected a forge on the Aquashicola, a short 
distance northeast of Little Gap. Pig iron was brought 
to this place from Berks county. 

In 1827, David, the younger, built a furnace near the 
forge, which he named '^Clarissa," in honor of his 
wife. Ores were brought over the Lehigh Canal from 
Whitehall, being transported the remaining six miles 
from Lehigh Gap to the furnace by teams. Anthracite 
coal was not then considered available as fuel in the 
manufacture of iron, charcoal being employed, and the 
object in locating in this out-of-the-way place was to 
secure a plentiful supply of timber near at hand. 

During the year 1834, the owners of these iron works 
died, and the property was subsequently acquired by 
Joseph J. Albright and others. Albright was an 
ardent admirer of Henry Clay, rechristening the plant 
as the ''Ashland Iron Works," after the place of na- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 249 

tivity of the Great Pacificator, in Hanover county, 
Virginia. 

The works were entirely washed away by the flood 
of 1841. The furnace was never rebuilt; but a new 
forge of greater capacity than the old was erected. 
This was partially destroyed by fire soon thereafter. 
The plant passed into other hands in 1851, and was 
finally abandoned in 1860. 

The village of Millport, which is situated on the 
Aquashicola, about two miles from its confluence with 
the Lehigh, grew up about the mill established there 
in 1806 by George Ziegenfuss. The original mill was 
destroyed by fire in 1834, being then owned by John 
Ziegenfuss, a son of the first settler. The property 
was then sold to his brother, George, who rebuilt the 
mill, and conducted it until 1845, when Jacob Bowman 
became the owner. It has passed through many hands, 
and is now conducted by Charles VanHorn. 

Prior to 1830, a tannery was started here by a man 
named Meckle. After several changes of ownership 
it came into the possession of Reuben Miller, under 
whom it was thrice destroyed by fire. The last fire 
occurred in 1874, after which the enterprise was aban- 
doned. The tall brick stack is still standing. 

The first store in the place was opened by George 
Ziegenfuss, who discontinued it after a few years. In 
1836, a hotel was built by John A. Ziegenfuss, who 
kept it for many years. Lewis Groff has been the 
owner of the property since 1872. 

The postofiice here, to which the name of Aquashi- 
cola is applied, was established in 1855, with Thomas 
Bowman as postmaster. A rural route, running to 
Kresgeville, Monroe county, by way of Little Gap, 
and returning by way of Trochsville, was instituted in 
1905. 



250 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Stephen Lentz, about the year 1864, discovered a 
slate bed at the eastern extremity of the town. Soon 
thereafter a quarry was opened by the Millport Slate 
Company, which was succeeded by the Brilliant Black 
Slate Company. Since 1896, the quarry has been 
operated in partnership by William Lewis and Walter 
Bray. This is the only point where slate is produced 
in the Lehigh Valley north of the Blue Eidge. 

A paint factory was established in the lower end of 
the village by a man named Lawrence, late in the fif- 
ties. He disposed of the business to A. C. Prince, 
under whom the buildings were destroyed by fire in 
1881. 

The Evangelical church at this place was erected in 
1866. Services had been held in the community by this 
denomination as early as 1842. 

A chapel was erected here by the Sunday school of 
the Evangelical Lutheran church, about 1892. 

In 1893, George Strohl opened the Farmers' Hotel in 
a building formerly occupied as a residence by A. C. 
Prince. 

Bowmanstown, which is a neat and prosperous vil- 
lage, derives its name from John Deter Bowman, who 
settled here in 1796. He was a grandson of the original 
settler of that name. 

In 1808, he built the old stone hotel, which is still 
occupied and which was a stopping place on the route 
of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike. 

The place attained but little significance until the 
building of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, now 
known as the Central Railroad of New Jersey, through 
here. 

About the year 1855, Henry Bowman uncovered 
paint ore in the Stony Ridge, near here, and soon there- 
after began the manufacture of metallic brown paint 



HISTOR Y OF CARBON COUNTY. 251 

in its dry state. Later he organized the Poco-Metallic 
Paint Company, which engaged successfully in the 
manufacture of this product. This company was suc- 
ceeded by the Carbon Metallic Paint Company, which is 
still in existence. 

Henry Bowman was the father of this industry, 
being closely followed by Robert Prince, who in 1858 
established the Iron-Ore Metallic Paint Company at 
Lehigh Gap. In 1879, the plant of the last-named 
concern was brought to Bowmanstown, where, under 
the name of the Prince Manufacturing Company, 
headed by A. C. Prince, the business has since been 
continued. This company also operates, under lease, 
the mills of the Carbon Metallic Paint Company. 

Sand in large quantities is found in the region about 
Bowmanstown, and the quarrying and shipping of this 
natural product has been carried on for perhaps fifty 
years. The first to engage in this business was Jacob 
Scherer. 

The vein varies in thickness between twenty and 
thirty feet, running along the north side of the Stony 
Ridge. Most of the loose sand has been exhausted, 
while that which is now being quarried is rock-like in 
texture, and grinding machinery is employed to re- 
duce it and prepare it for use. About seventy-five 
men are employed in this industry hereabouts. 

Another product of the Stony Ridge, which is the 
treasure-house of this section, is building stone. The 
stone is a kind of gray granite, for which there is a 
good demand. 

The Bowmanstown Silk Company, employing about 
fifty operatives, was established in 1909, with W. F. 
Hofford as its president. These are the principal 
local industries upon which the town depends, but many 
living here find employment at nearby points. 



252 HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

A postoffice, with John Rush in charge, was opened 
here in 1883. Two rural routes emanating from this 
office were established in 1904. One runs through East 
Penn, while the other passes through portions of Towa- 
mensing and Lower Towamensing townships. 

The first school in the village was opened in 1844. 
The original stone building was replaced by a frame 
structure in 1879. The present handsome two-story 
brick building, housing all the schools of the town, was 
erected in 1903, at a cost of $5,000. 

The Patriotic Order of Sons of America and the 
Order of Independent Americans both own large and 
attractive halls which have been recently erected. 

The congregation of St. John's Evangelical church 
dates back more than thirty years, when meetings 
were held in private houses. The present church build- 
ing was dedicated in 1892. 

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran church was erected in 
1895, previous to which time the Lutheran people wor- 
shiped in the public school house. 

Emmanuel's Reformed church was built in 1905, 
Charles A. Butz being the first pastor. Meetings had 
previously been held in the Evangelical church. 

In 1856 a German Catholic congregation built a 
church a short distance from Bowmanstown. This 
building was destroyed by fire some years ago, after 
which worship was conducted in the old school house. 
During the summer of 1911 this building was struck by 
lightning and was partly demolished, being repaired 
and re-dedicated during the same season. 

The only tavern in the place until 1891 was the Bow- 
manstown Hotel, built in 1808, and kept for many years 
by John D. Bowman and his descendants. During the 
latter year, the Center House was opened by Henry 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 253 

Ernst, who conducted it as a temperance house for a 
time. The present landlord is Martin Christman. 

Lehigh Gap was originally a post village on the line 
of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike. The place is 
situated at the northern base of the Blue Ridge, just at 
the point where the Lehigh river begins to steal its 
way through this great natural barrier. The gap, 
prominently walled on both sides, forms a sublime 
object of admiration, and presents to the observant 
spectator one of the most beautiful prospects in all 
Pennsylvania. 

A well known landmark on the mountainside west of 
the river is a lonely pile of rocks, whimsically called 
'^The Devil's Pulpit," which indignantly suffers but 
a few blasted pines to shade its sullen brow. 

The Indians applied the name Buchca-buchka to the 
gap, which, in the picturesque language of the Dela- 
wares, signified two mountains butting toward one 
another, and separated by a stream of water — a water 
gap. 

General Thomas Craig, who settled in this romantic 
spot in 1814, succeeding Joseph Bauman as the land- 
lord of the Lehigh Gap Inn, was a hero of the French 
and Indian War, and was the first officer to protect the 
Continental Congress in its important deliberations. 
He also served with distinction in the war of Inde- 
pendence. 

Descendants of General Craig are still living at Le- 
high Gap, while in each generation one or more mem- 
bers of the family have taken a prominent part in the 
civil or military affairs of the state and nation. 

About 1830, Thomas Craig, Jr., in partnership with 
Stephen Hagenbuch, opened a general store here, which 
supplied the needs of the countryside within a radius 
of many miles. 



254 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Colonel John Craig, a son of the founder, continued 
this business until his death, which occurred a few 
years ago, and it is still owned by his estate. 

The old hotel is still standing, but has been kept by 
lessee landlords since 1851. 

In 1885, Harry Rutherford and Charles Barkley, 
under the firm name of Rutherford & Barkley, estab- 
lished themselves in the manufacture of metallic paint 
near here. This industry is now conducted by the 
Prince Metallic Paint Company. 



CHAPTER XVT. 



MAHONING TOWNSHIP. 



Mahoning township, the richest agricultural district 
of Carbon county, was organized in 1842, its territory 
being taken from East Penn. 

The name Mahoning is corrupted from Mahonhanne, 
which in the tongue of the Delaware Indians, meant 
a stream flowing near a lick. 

It is bounded on the north by Mauch Chunk town- 
ship; on the east by the Lehigh river; on the south 
by East Penn, and on the west by Schuylkill county. 

The Mahoning creek, rising in Schuylkill county, and 
flowing eastwardly into the Lehigh, is the principal 
stream. The beautiful valley drained by this stream 
lies between two gently sloping mountains, the sides of 
which are often dotted almost to their tops with cul- 
tivated fields. 

Since the first settlement of the valley, the north- 
ern, or Mahoning mountain, has been referred to lo 
cally as the Summer mountain, while that to the south- 
ward has been called the Winter mountain, from the 
position of the sun at these seasons of the year. 

A portion of the present territory of Mahoning town- 
ship was the first to which any title was obtained by 
white men in the immediate region north of the Blue 
Ridge. In 1682, William Penn deeded a tract of five 
thousand acres to Adrian Vroesen, of Rotterdam, 
which after several changes of ownership came into 
possession of Richard Peters, of Philadelphia. He, 
in 1745, conveyed one hundred and twenty acres of this 
land near the mouth of the Mahoning to the Moravians 

255 



256 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

of Bethlehem, who established Gnadenhiitten mission 
thereon during the following year. 

A number of settlers located on other portions of 
this tract between 1750 and 1775. Most of these were 
of English birth or parentage. Among the first was 
George Custard, who is mentioned as having been here 
at the time of the Massacre of Gnadenhiitten in 1755. 
He and the few others in the neighborhood are sup- 
posed to have fled after that event. 

Benjamin Gilbert, an aged Quaker, and his family- 
came to the valley of the Mahoning from Byberry, near 
Philadelphia, in 1775. 

They built a saw-mill and a grist-mill on the spot 
where the mill of David A. Kistler now stands. 

The story of the peace and prosperity which re- 
warded their industry and thrift during a period of five 
years, followed by their captivity among the Indians 
and the destruction of the improvements which they 
had made, constitutes one of the many pathetic inci- 
dents in the frontier life of eastern Pennsylvania, and 
has already been related. 

Upon the return of the Gilberts from captivity, 
they took up their abode at Byberry, their former 
home, disposing of their land here to Captain Joseph 
Longstreth, who, with Robert McDaniel, replaced the 
improvements which had been burned by the Indians. 
Samuel Dodson and family located on land now 
owned by Ira Troxel at about the same time that the 
Gilberts came to the region. One of the family, Abi- 
gail, a girl of fourteen years, was carried off by the 
Indians with the Gilberts. 

Samuel Dodson died in 1795, and was buried in the 
Lizard Creek Valley. Soon thereafter most of his 
family removed to Shamokin, later going to Hunting- 



HISTORY OP GAEBON COUNTY. 257 

ton township, Luzerne county, where their descendants 
are numerous. 

Among those who remained was Isaac T. Dodson, 
who became a well known citizen of Mauch Chunk. 

Scarcely any settlements appear to have been made 
in Mahoning township between the close of the Revo- 
lution and the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

About 1800, however, Andrew Beck, John and Abra- 
ham Freyman, Peter Musselman and Peter, Henry and 
John Nothstein joined those who had previously lived 
here. 

John Freyman was the grandfather of William G. 
Freyman, who has for many years been a prominent 
member of the Carbon county bar. 

The three Nothsteins who have been mentioned were 
brothers. Their father, Peter Nothstein, who was a 
soldier in the war of Independence, spent his declining 
years with them. His remains are interred in a little 
private cemetery at Center Square. Henry Nothstein 
built the first store to be opened at Center Square, and 
in later years his son, Daniel, was a merchant here; 
he was succeeded by his son-in-law, Hon. C. H. Seidle. 

Among those who came to the township prior to 1817 
were Abram and Jost Miller and Henry Arner. Most 
of these settlers came from Lehigh county. 

Jacob Fenstermacher located at New Mahoning in 
1819. He opened a hotel which stood on the site of 
that now kept by Thomas Beltz. 

Christian Klotz, a native of Lehigh county, in 1823 
built a grist-mill which was later owned by Solomon 
Hoppes, who rebuilt it in 1848. This is now the prop- 
erty of F. D. Klingaman. 

Christian Klotz was the father of Hon. Robert Klotz, 
who represented this district in the Forty-sixth Con- 
gress. 



258 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Paul Balliet, who was born in Alsace, Germany, in 
1717, and who was one of the first settlers of North 
AVhitehall township, Lehigh county, was the pioneer 
of the family of that name in this township. Joseph, 
a son of Leonard Balliet, who had located in West 
Penn township, Schuylkill county, first established him- 
self on a farm at Center Square. Later, he purchased 
the farm of Jacob Feller, near St. John's church. 
Here his son, Nathan, lived and reared a large family. 
His son, Francis S. Balliet, now occupies the old home- 
stead. 

Before 1825, Thomas Walton opened a store on the 
farm now owned by Aaron Zimmerman, a short dis- 
tance east of New Mahoning. He also established a 
hotel and a blacksmith shop. The store was subse- 
quently kept by Abraham Hanline, while the hotel was 
abandoned. 

Henry Arner, about the year 1820, began the manu- 
facture of shoes to supply the miners of Summit Hill. 
He was succeeded by Henry Bretney, who continued 
the business until 1855. 

In 1832, Henry Arner and Abraham Hanline erected 
a powder mill on the site of the saw-mill now con- 
ducted by Lewis Zimmerman. Between 1839 and 1841 
the mill was twice blown up, and two lives were lost, 
the venture being abandoned in 1854. 

Another powder mill started in 1842, and conducted 
by John Erb, exploded several times with fatal results. 

The Lehigh Valley Railroad Company began opera- 
tions at Packerton in 1862. Prior to that time the lo- 
cality was known as Burlington, and later as Dolans- 
burg, after George and John Dolan, who owned most 
of the land here. The place is situated on the Lehigh 
river, nearly midway between Mauch Chunk and Le- 
highton, being named in honor of Asa Packer. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 259 

Packerton is the central point of the immense coal 
traffic of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and large shops 
for the repair of the rolling stock of the company have 
been built here. All of the coal passing east over the 
road is weighed and forwarded from this point. 

Mauch Chunk was the shipping point of the company 
until the increase in traffic made it necessary to seek a 
location affording more room than that place contained. 

Most of the employes of the shops and yards at 
Packerton live in the nearby towns. 

Packerton itself fs a neat little village, built on a high 
bluff overlooking the river. It has no interests aside 
from those centering in the railroad. 

Jamestown, adjoining Lehighton on the north, is 
built on land warranted to Paul Solt, who settled in the 
locality about the year 1780. It bears the first name of 
James McDaniel, one of the early settlers. Amos Rie- 
gel, a former sheriff of Carbon county, and the father 
of J, A. Riegel, became possessed of most of the town- 
site in 1862. He began selling lots in 1874. The place 
has been principally settled by employes of the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad. 

The first schools in the township, apart from those 
kept by the Moravians, at what is now Lehighton, were 
opened about 1825. Isaac Harleman, Samuel Dodson 
and John Fulton were among the early teachers. Ma- 
honing accepted the free school law in 1840, or there- 
abouts, and the township was divided into districts. 

Packerton, having a high school, was set off as an 
independent district in 1872. Jamestown also forms a 
part of this district. The brick school building situated 
between these places was the gift of Asa Packer. 

One of the most interesting events in the educational 
annals of the county was the unveiling, in 1908, of a 
beautiful tablet in the school house at New Mahoning, 



260 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

commemorating the patriotism displayed in the Civil 
War by those formerly connected with the school. 
Thirty-six pupils and two teachers of this school vol- 
unteered in defense of the Union, as the tablet sets 
forth. The memorial was conceived by J. F. Kressley, 
one of the survivors. The New Mahoning district, 
which contained less than fifty voters during the time 
of the war, contributed sixty-seven men to the service 
of the nation, a manifestation of loyalty which is be- 
lieved to be unsurpassed. 

There are now thirteen schoolhouses maintained in 
the township, three of which are situated in the inde- 
pendent district of Packerton. 

Postoffices were formerly kept at Center Square, 
New Mahoning and at Pleasant Corner. 

In the old days, the mail was carried to these post- 
offices from Lehighton every Saturday, and during the 
evening of that day the people of the neighborhood 
wended their way thither for the dual purpose of claim- 
ing the weekly paper or the occasional letter, and for 
social intercourse. Later the mail was delivered twice 
a week, and, finally every day. 

On September 1, 1903, the rural delivery system of 
the government was extended to the township, and the 
postoffices were abandoned. David Ebberts, who had 
previously traveled twelve hundred miles a year be- 
tween his home and the postoffice, was chiefly instru- 
mental in getting the rural route started. A postoffice 
is still maintained at Packerton. 

St. John's Lutheran and Reformed church, located 
between New Mahoning and Pleasant Corner, was built 
in 1850. The present handsome brick structure was 
erected in 1892. 

Emmanuel's Evangelical church was built in 1868. 




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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 261 

A Methodist church at Beaver Run, organized in 
1881, has since been abandoned. 

Christ Reformed church at Packerton was organized 
in 1899, while the corner-stone of Zion's Evangelical 
Lutheran church of the same place, was laid in 1901. 

The telephone is just beginning to come into general 
use in the township. 

Not only does Mahoning township lead every other 
district in the county in the number of its fertile and 
productive farms, but it contains more well-kept home- 
steads than any other rural section. 

MAUCH CHUNK BOROUGH. 

The natural scenery surrounding Mauch Chunk, 
which is the seat of justice of Carbon county, has been 
the theme of admiration for many years. 

Its picturesque and romantic situation in the 
''Switzerland of America" has justly brought the town 
a fame which has long since spread beyond our own 
borders. 

The place is located at the confluence of Mauch 
Chunk creek and the Lehigh river, and is almost en- 
circled by mountains of towering and majestic propor- 
tions. 

Mauch Chunk derives its name from the familiar 
conical formation on the eastern bank of the river, op- 
posite the town, called by the Indians "Machk 
Tschunk," signifying Bear Mountain. 

Whether this is an upheaval, or the beautifully 
fashioned result of the action of ice and water through 
countless ages, is an interesting question for the 
lovers of geological controversy. 

One's first view of it is like the lifting of a curtain 
from a strange and magical picture. Whether seen in 
summer, robed in green, or in autumn, with its dress 



262 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

transformed into more brilliant hues, this mountain- 
cone, with its glorious drapery, is the marvel of every 
beholder. 

South mountain, from the summit of which, during 
the hours of the night, the lights of Flagstaff Park seem 
to mingle with stars, its surface studded with ledges of 
jutting rocks and strewn with huge boulders, rises 
precipitately from the western bank of the river to the 
height of a thousand feet. To the northward looms the 
peak of Mount Pisgah, somewhat resembling a volcano, 
which effect is at times heightened by the smoke emitted 
from the stacks of the power house of the Switchback 
Railroad, which stands upon its crest. 

Between Mount Pisgah and South mountain flows 
Mauch Chunk creek, which is arched over, while the 
larger portion of the town nestles in this narrow gorge. 
There is room for but a single street facing the river. 

Anterior to the year 1818, the spot where Mauch 
Chunk now stands was a perfect wilderness, covered 
with forest trees and underbrush, affording a secure re- 
treat and covert for the wild animals which had their 
haunts in this mountainous region. 

Where now is heard the cymbal clash of locomotive 
bells and the richly rumbling bass of the stately cara- 
vans of commerce and where comfort and refinement 
dwell, silence then reigned supreme, except when 
broken by the manifold voices of nature. 

It had been known for years previous to this date 
that the nearby mountains contained anthracite coal; 
but up to the time spoken of, every attempt which had 
been made to work the mines and convey coal to market 
had soon proved abortive. 

Now, however, the burden of the task which had over- 
whelmed other brave spirits was assumed by Josiah 
White, Erskine Hazard and George F. A. Hanto, who 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 263 

secured the lease of the mines at Summit Hill, and who 
became the founders of the Lehigh Coal and Naviga- 
tion Company. 

Their efforts were ultimately crowned with splendid 
success, and it was in connection with the great enter- 
prise launched by these men that Mauch Chunk had its 
beginnings and its subsequent development. 

The work of improving the channel of the river and 
constructing a wagon road to the mines, preparatory 
to shipping coal to market from this point, was begun 
during the summer of the year already alluded to. 

The site of the town was selected from the emergency 
of the circumstances. 

Had it not been that the owners of the land at the 
mouth of the Nesquehoning creek placed a prohibitive 
price thereon, hoping that coal might be found beneath 
its surface, that location would have been chosen. 

The first improvements made at Mauch Chunk were 
merely those necessary to the business of the company, 
and were, of course utilitarian in character. 

That the region was indeed a wilderness may be 
gathered from the fact that when operations were be- 
gun there were but thirteen houses visible from the 
river north of Lehigh Gap. 

The workmen, who were under the immediate super- 
vision of Josiah White himself, were at first quar- 
tered on scows that were moved down the river as the 
work progressed. 

During the first year of the settlement four hundred 
acres of land were cleared, and about forty buildings of 
various descriptions were erected. 

Among these were saw mills, a grist mill, workshops 
and dwellings. 

Nicholas Brink, who had previously lived in Phila- 
delphia, was the company's steward. His wife. Mar- 



264 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

garet, was the first woman to come to Mauch Chunk. 
Soon after locating here a son was born to them, and 
he was named Josiah White Erskine Hazard George 
F. A. Hanto Brink. This being the first birth to occur 
in the town, the inhabitants considered the event 
worthy of public demonstration. "The forest was 
illuminated with pine torches, plenty of pure old rye 
whiskey was drunk, and the noise and dancing were so 
great that it seemed as if the very tops of the pines had 
caught the infection, and kept time by swaying to and 
fro." 

This celebration was participated in by about six- 
hundred men, the number then engaged in pushing to 
completion the improvements which had been begun. 

The only avenue of approach to Mauch Chunk at this 
time was the line of the Lehigh and Susquehanna 
turnpike. 

The road lay along the margin of the river, and, in 
passing through the "Narrows" below the town, there 
was room for but a single vehicle at a time. For years 
it was necessary to take the precaution to send word 
ahead to a place where such as came from the opposite 
direction could halt and wait until passed. 

In making his report, one who had visited the locality 
for the purpose of examining into the practicability of 
the projects under way, said : "The making of a good 
road is utterly impossible, and to give you an idea of 
the country over which the road is to pass, I need only 
say that I considered it quite an easement when the 
wheel of my carriage struck a stump instead of a 
stone ! ' * 

Many viewed with similar feelings of incredulity 
the proposition that a town should be built where na- 
ture seemed manifestly to have made it impossible. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 265 

But the men who had undertaken this enterprise were 
of the kind whom obstacles only spur to greater en- 
deavors, and the work went steadily on. 

In 1821, Josiah White was joined by his wife and 
four children, and during the following year a com- 
fortable house was provided for them. This stood im- 
mediately in the rear of the spot where the Soldiers' 
Monument has since been erected, and was surrounded 
by spacious and well kept grounds. 

Sixteen stone houses were completed on the lower 
part of Broadway in 1823. The Mansion House was 
begun at this time, and was finished in 1824. During 
this year the ravine was given a further appearance of 
being inhabited by the erection of nineteen log build- 
ings above the place where the Town Hall now stands. 

A stone grist mill was completed in 1825, while three 
additional saw mills were placed in operation on the 
river about the same time. 

In 1827 the company built a wooden bridge across 
the Lehigh, also putting up a fire-proof office building 
adjoining the present court house. 

A two-story stone building, which served as the com- 
pany's store house, was put up in 1828. It stood on the 
spot now occupied by the court house, and was donated 
to the county upon its organization, being its first tem- 
ple of justice. 

Men and manners were for the most part as rough as 
the surroundings during the early period of the settle- 
ment, as is commonly the case where hardy spirits are 
engaged in subduing nature, and where the refining 
influences of home and civilization are lacking. 

Fights were of common occurrence, although the men 
were not so much given to quarreling among themselves 
as they were to waging war against the laborers of 
Lehighton, with whom they frequently had sanguinary 
encounters on their own ground. 



266 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

The habitual use of intoxicating beverages, too, was 
then approved by custom, and laboring men were sup- 
plied with liquor by their employers. 

Josiah White, sturdy Quaker though he was, made 
no exception to the rule. 

The men employed at Mauch Chunk were given their 
whiskey as regularly as their meals, a man being kept 
on the payroll whose sole duty consisted in dispensing 
it, a ''jiggerful" at a time to each man. 

William Speers was the "jigger boss," and it was in 
recognition of his first name that the allowances came 
to be generally called "Billy cups." 

Keference is made to this custom in a song which 
was once locally popular : 

'*When old Mauch Chunk was young, 

At noon they blew the horn, 
And, gathering thick, came gangs of men. 

And so at eve and morn. 
With grace and promptitude and skill 

They moistened lip and tongue. 
And went to work with right good ivill. 

When old Mauch Chunk ivas young." 

Prior to 1832, the land about Mauch Chunk and the 
improvements which had been made upon it were 
owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. 
The town at that time contained about one hundred 
and fifty buildings of every description, having a resi- 
dent population of approximately one thousand people. 

It had a church, four schools, a newspaper and print- 
ing office, one hotel, an iron foundry and a car manu- 
factory, while boat building was also carried on exten- 
sively. 

But above all, it was at the head of the Lehigh Canal, 
and the boats which departed from this point laden 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 267 

with coal wafted back cargoes of merchandise and 
freight for a large extent of country. 

The wild and picturesque location of the town, the 
many novelties of the nearby coal mines, and the won- 
ders of the Switchback Railroad, which was the first of 
any importance in the United States, drew many visi- 
tors to the place. 

This railroad, following the same route then as at 
present, carried the product of the mines to the plateau 
at the foot of Mt. Pisgah, whence the coal was conveyed 
by means of inclined planes and chutes to the river 
below. 

With its accustomed liberality, the company, in 
1832, threw the town open to public enterprise, effect- 
ing the sale or lease of a large number of lots, and in- 
augurating an era of individual activity and prosperity. 

Speaking of the pioneer residents of Mauch Chunk, 
Josiah White and Erskine Hazard were chronologically 
and in other respects the first. They were indeed 
among the princes of pioneers, and their names are in- 
scribed in imperishable characters on the title page of 
the almost fabulous history of anthracite coal. 

John Ruddle, a native of England, came here as an 
accountant for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- 
pany in 1820. He was one of the earliest residents of 
East Mauch Chunk, where his descendants still live. 

Isaac Salkeld, accompanied by his family, arrived 
here from Philadelphia in 1823. He was a general 
foreman for the company, and superintended the build- 
ing of the Mansion House, the gravity road to Nesque- 
honing, and many other improvements. 

For a time he had charge of the old Mauch Chunk 
Foundry, one of the first in the state outside of Phila- 
delphia. His son, Jacob, was for many years promi- 
nently identified with the life and activities of Mauch 
Chunk. 



268 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

George Belford, who was one of the company's first 
employes, in later life became a coal operator and was 
chosen as the first president of the Mauch Chunk Bank. 

Others who were here as early as 1824, and who left 
their impress upon the town were: Samuel Lippin- 
cott, Benjamin Mears, Isaac Dodson, Abiel Abbot and 
Alexander Lockhart, 

William Butler, a leading churchman, located in the 
place in 1826 ; Ezekiel W. Harlan, later a coal operator 
also came at this time. 

Asa Lansford Foster, who achieved substantial suc- 
cess in various fields of endeavor, arrived in the set- 
tlement in 1827. 

Joseph H. Chapman came during the ensuing year. 
He was a man of many activities, but in later life had 
charge of the coal shipping department of the Lehigh 
Coal and Navigation Company. 

Daniel Bertsch, prominent among the early coal 
operators, and in other respects, came here as a black- 
smith in 1827. 

John Leisenring, Sr., a native of Lehigh county, 
with his family, came in 1828 to become the landlord 
of the Mansion House. Later he was a merchant and 
general business man. The name of his eldest son, 
John, is intimately associated with the development of 
the transportation facilities of the Lehigh Valley; he 
also became a wealthy coal operator. Another son, A. 
W. Leisenring, became a leader in the financial affairs 
of Mauch Chunk. 

The year 1833 witnessed the coming of one who was 
destined to become one of the foremost men of his 
day, Asa Packer. He was accompanied by his brother- 
in-law, James L Blakslee. 

During the same year, Kobert Klotz, a native of the 
Mahoning Valley, began life as a mule driver on the 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 269 

towpath at Mauch Chunk. He was later a conspicuous 
figure in the town, and represented his district in 
congress. 

Among the best known of the comparatively early 
settlers was Colonel John Lentz, a veteran of the war 
of 1812, and a native of Lehigh county. He was a 
leader in the movement which resulted in the organ- 
ization of Carbon county, under which he subsequently 
held various offices of trust and honor, being also a 
hotel keeper. His son, Lafayette Lentz, is one of 
Mauch Chunk's oldest and most respected residents of 
to-day. 

Others of subsequent prominence who made Mauch 
Chunk their home during the first twenty-five years of 
its existence were: E. A. Douglass and his brother, 
A. A. Douglass, the former an official of the Lehigh 
Coal and Navigation Company, and the latter a coal 
operator; A. G. Brodhead, the well known railroad 
man, and Charles 0. Skeer, a leader in the coal in- 
dustry and in business and financial affairs. 

The first mercantile establishment to be opened in 
Mauch Chunk after the discontinuance of the company 
store was the famous ''corner store," which occupied 
the site where the Navigation Building now stands. It 
was originally owned by Asa L. Foster, who had form- 
erly conducted the company store, Benjamin R. Mc- 
Connell and James Broderick. 

This was the principal establishment of its kind be- 
tween the Susquehanna and the Delaware, and many 
of the farmers of the first named region disposed of 
their surplus products here, and the fact that they 
received cash in exchange, instead of being asked to do 
business on the basis of barter, which was then the 
custom in most rural neighborhoods, made the market 
a very desirable one to them. The store was so con- 



270 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

structed that boats could be floated beneath it and un- 
loaded by wheel and axle through hatches in the floors 
of the building. 

After a few years, Mr. Foster became the sole owner 
of the establishment, and in 1837 he sold out to Asa and 
R. W. Packer. They carried on the business until 
about the middle of the next decade, being succeeded 
by Hiram Wolf, Harry Wilbur and David Trehorn, 
under the title of Wolf, Wilbur and Company. 

Casper Christman, James Speer, Nathan Fegley and 
Company and John Kent and Company were among 
those who early entered into business in the town. 

John Leisenring, Sr., was a leading merchant from 
1840 until his death, which occurred in 1854. 

The pioneering spirit which distinguished the build- 
ers of Maucli Chunk was made particularly manifest 
in the realm of invention. 

John Wilson, whose trade was that of a tinker, and 
who was one of the first men to come to the locality, 
made the first heating stove to burn anthracite coal. It 
was a plain, round, sheet-iron cylinder, with fire-door, 
tearing-door, ash pit and a screen under the grate. It 
also contained a pan to receive the ashes. 

Wilson, too, is said to have been the maker of the 
first cook-stove successfully burning hard coal. He 
was of a humorous disposition, and delighted to be 
called "John Wulson, the tinker." 

Asa L. Foster did a great deal of experimenting in 
the endeavor to perfect the coal-burning stove, and 
many of his ideas were utilized by John Mears, a 
worker in iron and tin, who engaged in the manufac- 
ture of stoves in the place. 

The first attempt attended with any considerable suc- 
cess to utilize anthracite coal in the smelting of iron 
ore in this country was made at Mauch Chunk. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 271 

White and Hazard, the managers of the Lehigh Coal 
and Navigation Company began to experiment in this 
direction in 1825, when they erected a blast furnace, 
together with a tilt-mill and forge on the site where the 
Broadway livery and boarding stables now stand. 
The knowledge they acquired was later turned to good 
account, but produced no immediate results, the fur- 
nace being abandoned and another built on adjoining 
ground, in which charcoal was used. 

In the fall of 1837, the old furnace was again fitted 
up and the experiment retried by Henry High, Joseph 
Baughman, F. C. Lanthrop and Julius Guiteau. The 
result encouraged them to go on with their work, al- 
though they were ridiculed by old-fashioned iron mas- 
ters, who affirmed their readiness to eat all the iron 
that could be manufactured in this manner. 

To test the matter more thoroughly, a small furnace 
was built below the weigh-lock, which was completed 
during the summer of 1838. 

After overcoming many difficulties, the furnace was 
made to produce iron of good quality, but the venture 
was not financially successful. 

A few years later, however, the Lehigh Coal and 
Navigation Company promoted the building of the first 
blast furnaces of the Crane Iron Company at Cata- 
sauqua, where success was achieved from the start. 

A foundry started by the first-named company near 
the old furnace on Broadway was sold about 1830 to 
John Fatzinger. He and Jacob H. Salkeld carried on 
the establishment for many years. 

The Mauch Chunk Iron Works, until recently owned 
by the estate of W. H. Stroh, were opened by Edward 
Lippincott and Elias Miner in 1845. Formerly a fur- 
nace was conducted in connection with the plant, but 
this feature was found unprofitable and was aban- 
doned. 



272 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

One of the thriving industries of Mauch Chunk in 
earlier times was the wire mill established by the Le- 
high Coal and Navigation Company in 1849. Opera- 
tions were first carried on in the old grist mill building 
on Susquehanna street, and later another building was 
added. All the wire rope used by the company was 
manufactured here, the process having been evolved 
by Erskine Hazard. The works were closed in 1872 
and the industry transferred to Wilkes-Barre. 

The grist mill property referred to occupied the spot 
where the establishment of the Hooven Mercantile 
Company is now situated. 

In 1875, Ario Pardee opened a steam rolling mill on 
the corner where the Central Hotel has since been 
built. Alexander Eobinson conducted the business. 

Among the other local industries which are still in 
existence is the West End Brewery, formerly owned by 
John E. G. Weysser ; the Mauch Chunk Silk Mills, and 
the repair shops of the Central Railroad of New 
Jersey. 

Mauch Chunk was incorporated as a borough on 
January 26, 1850. At that time the population of the 
place was about twenty-five hundred, which included 
the people living in East Mauch Chunk, which was not 
separated from the older settlement until 1854. Both 
boroughs were set off from Mauch Chunk township. 

At the first municipal election Charles 0. Skeer, E. 
W. Harlan, Joseph Bullock, Jacob H. Salkeld, Leonard 
Blakslee and J. R. Twining were elected as councilmen. 
They chose E. W. Harlan as burgess at their first 
meeting. 

Upper Mauch Chunk, constituting the Second Ward 
of the borough, and occupying a natural terrace over- 
looking the rest of the town, was laid out for building 
purposes in 1846. The first settler in this neighbor- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 273 

hood was David Pratt, who lived in the vicinity as 
early as 1823. Elliot Lockhart, Philip Swank, Nathan 
Tubbs, Joseph Weyhenmeyer and Charles Faga were 
other early residents. This section of the town has 
from the beginning been principally a locality of 
homes. 

The Lehigh Valley Railroad, which has been a factor 
of vital importance in the life of Mauch Chunk was 
placed in operation between here and Easton in the 
fall of 1855. During the days of its infancy, the head- 
quarters of the road were located here, and for many 
years the work of important departments was centered 
in Mauch Chunk. 

The same may be said of the Lehigh and Susque- 
hanna Railroad, which was built during the next de- 
cade by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and 
later leased to the Central Railroad of New Jersey. 

The interests of the town are now more closely cen- 
tered in the latter road than the former, since Mauch 
Chunk is an important division point of the Central 
Railroad of New Jersey. 

Owing to the height and steepness which character- 
ize the mountains of the region, and the rapidity with 
which smaller streams pour their water into the river 
during periods of heavy rains or melting snows, the 
valley of the Lehigh is subject to sudden floods, which 
have at various times resulted in the destruction of 
many lives and much valuable property. 

Mauch Chunk has suffered severely in a number of 
these floods. It has also had one costly fire. 

The first of these floods was that of June 9, 1841, 
which was a disastrous one throughout the valley. Sev- 
eral residents of the town were drowned, among the 
number, Adam Beers and his family. Quite a number 



274 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

of buildings were also washed away, together with the 
bridge across the Lehigh at the Mansion House. 

The fire alluded to occurred on July 15, 1849, and the 
business portion of the place was laid in ashes. 

About thirty buildings including the court house 
and jail, were consumed, entailing a loss of one hun- 
dred thousand dollars. 

When the flames attacked the jail, the prisoners 
were set free. The fire taking place during the day 
time, the county records were saved. 

The freshet of 1862 was the most memorable event 
of its kind in the history of the Lehigh Valley. One 
hundred and fifty people were drowned, while the prop- 
erty loss was almost beyond calculation. A heavy and 
continuous rain, which commenced on the third of June, 
caused a rapid rise in the Lehigh and its tributary 
streams above Mauch Chunk. On the afternoon of the 
succeeding day, the force of the flood broke the booms 
in the vicinity of White Haven, thus casting adrift a 
large quantity of saw-logs and other timber to pursue 
an almost resistless course down the river. The dams 
on the Lehigh Canal were gradually battered down, 
and the pent up force thus released heightened the 
intensity of the flood. 

The water attained its extreme height in the neigh- 
borhood of Mauch Chunk at about midnight. At the 
Mansion House it rose thirty feet above the usual low- 
water mark, reaching the second story of the building. 

About half the buildings on the lower portion of Sus- 
quehanna street were washed away. Six lives were 
lost in this immediate vicinity during the continuance 
of the flood, while many thrilling escapes from death 
were recorded. 

The most marvellous of these was that of Leonard 
Yeager, who yet lives in Mauch Chunk. He was caught 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 275 

at his place of business on Susquehanna street by a 
sudden rise of the flood, and surrounded by wreckage 
and drift-wood was swept away through the darkness. 
Near Packerton he succeeded in climbing aboard a 
floating canal boat upon which he rode over the town 
of Weissport and on to Parryville. At the latter place 
he escaped from his perilous position by grasping the 
limb of a tree overhanging the river, making his way 
back to land. 

The canal between Mauch Chunk and White Haven 
was almost completely demolished by the flood, and 
was never rebuilt. It required the labor of between 
two and three thousand men and six hundred horses or 
mules during more than four months to repair the 
damages to the canal between Mauch Chunk and Al- 
lentown. The Lehigh Valley Railroad Company also 
sustained heavy losses as a result of the flood. 

In recent years, Mauch Chunk, in common with other 
towns in the Lehigh Valley was several times devas- 
tated by disastrous floods. 

The first of these occurred on August 24, 1901. On 
this occasion Mauch Chunk creek, which flows beneath 
Broadway burst its confines and engulfed Jesse 
Struthers, Harry Haggerty, William J. Morgan and 
Patrick Johnson, who were drowned. 

Another freshet visited the region about the middle 
of December during the same year, destroying hun- 
dreds of thousands of dollars worth of property be- 
tween Mauch Chunk and Lehigh Gap. 

On February 28, 1902, a veritable cloud burst raised 
the Lehigh several feet beyond the point attained in 
December. The bridge at the Mansion House was 
washed away by this flood, railroad traffic was par- 
alyzed for weeks, and the damage to property in all 
parts of the county was enormous. 



276 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Among the institutions and utilities of Mauch 
Chunk, the postoffice, established in the year 1819, was 
the first. For years there were but two mails a week. 

In 1829, the postal facilities had been so far im- 
proved that the number of mails arriving at and dis- 
patched from the town numbered thirty-eight each 
week. During this year the company controlling the 
Union line of mail coaches established connections be- 
tween this place and Philadelphia. Another route, ex- 
tending from Mauch Chunk to Pottsville, was opened 
in 1831. 

Erskine Hazard was the first postmaster, he being 
succeeded by Josiah White. Many other prominent 
citizens have held the office since their day. John 
Leisenring, Sr., who was the incumbent from 1831 
until 1847, and Mrs. Jane F. Eighter, who was post- 
mistress from 1860 until 1880, served the longest terms. 

The free delivery of the mail was instituted in the 
borough in 1906, and during the following year a postal 
sub-station was opened in Upper Mauch Chunk. At 
the same time a rural route, running through Beaver 
Eun and Bloomingdale Valleys was started. This 
office was designated as a postal savings bank in 1911. 

Asa Packer secured the charter for the Mauch Chunk 
Water Company in 1849. The source of supply is the 
valley of Mauch Chunk creek, and the water furnished 
the town is excellent for its purity and health giving 
properties. 

The Upper Mauch Chunk Water Company was or- 
ganized in the spring of 1872, the prime movers in the 
enterprise being E. F. Luckenbach and James Eoss. 

James I. Blakslee was the leader in the establish- 
ment of the Mauch Chunk Gas Company. The com- 
pany was chartered in 1854. Its capital stock now is 
$45,000, and its president is H. A. Butler. 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 277 

The Maueh Chunk Heat, Power, and Electric Light 
Company was incorporated in 1889. E. B. Leisenring 
was the first president, while William O. Lentz is now 
the head of the company. The generating plant is run 
by water power, but a steam equipment is also main- 
tained for emergency purposes. 

The pioneer monetary institution of Mauch Chunk 
was the private bank of Rockwood, Hazard and Com- 
pany. The bank was established in 1852 with a capital 
stock of fifty thousand dollars, and was in existence for 
five years. 

The Mauch Chunk State Bank was chartered in 1855, 
Hiram Wolf being its president, and A. W. Leisenring, 
cashier. Its successor was the First National Bank of 
Mauch Chunk, which was organized in 1863, beginning 
with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars. 
Two years later its capital was quadrupled. William 
Lilly and A. W. Butler originally served as president 
and cashier, respectively. 

Early in 1903 this bank was consolidated with the 
Linderman National Bank, forming the Mauch Chunk 
National Bank of to-day. This bank is a depositary of 
the United States and of the State of Pennsylvania. 
It has a capital stock of two hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars, and has accumulated a large surplus. M. S. 
Kemmerer is its president, while Ira G. Ross holds the 
position of cashier. S. S. Smith is the assistant 
cashier. 

The Second National Bank of Mauch Chunk was 
chartered in 1864, continuing for a period of thirty- 
eight years. Charles Albright served as president of 
the institution until his death, in 1880, being succeeded 
by Thomas L. Foster, who had previously been the 
cashier. 

With the expiration of its charter, at the close of the 
year 1902, this bank was succeeded by the Mauch 



278 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Chunk Trust Company, the only institution of its kind 
in the county. The capital of the company is one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars, and its surplus is 
equal to half that amount. J. M. Dreisbach, who was 
the last president of the Second National Bank, has 
been at the head of the trust company since its organi- 
zation. His son, George Dreisbach, is its secretary 
and treasurer. 

The banking house of G. B. Linderman and Company 
was established in 1867, conducting business prosper- 
ously under that title imtil 1882, when the Linderman 
National Bank was chartered. As has been shown, 
this bank was merged with the present national bank. 

The first newspaper issued here was the Lehigh 
Pioneer and Mauch Chunk Courier, which was estab- 
lished by Asa Lansford Foster in 1829. Its editor and 
publisher was Amos Sisty, who came to this place from 
Berwick. This was the forerunner of the Mauch Chunk 
Daily Tirnes and was for years the only newspaper in 
the Lehigh coal region. 

It had many owners, and was successively known as 
the Mauch Chunk Courier, the Carbon County Transit, 
the Mauch Chunk Gazette, and the Mauch Chunk Coal 
Gazette. 

During the Rebellion, its equipment was for a time 
used by H. V. Morthimer in the publication of the 
Union Flag. 

The Mauch Chunk Daily Times was started by 0. B. 
Sigley in 1883. In 1908 the property was acquired by 
James J. Boyle, the present editor and proprietor, who 
also publishes the Mauch Chunk Coal Gazette. 

Enos Tolen, in 1847, founded the Carbon Democrat, 
which after many changes and vicissitudes gave birth 
to the Mauch Chunk Daily News. 

Joseph Lynn became the owner of this paper in 1870, 
changing its name to the Mauch Chtmk Democrat. In 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 279 

1878 E. H. Raucli started a rival paper known as the 
Carbon County Democrat. After a few years the 
papers were merged under the name of the former. 
Mr. Ranch soon acquiring the ownership. He and his 
son, Lawrence, the present owner of the Mauch Chunk 
Daily News started that journal in 1893, and under the 
latter, the Mauch Chunk Democrat was published until 
1911, when it was suspended. 

The first regularly organized school in Mauch Chunk 
was opened in 1821 in a log-house owned by the Lehigh 
Coal and Navigation Company. It was taught by 
Margaret Saunders, a native of New Jersey. Two 
years after this, a second school was opened, which, in 
later years, was presided over by James Nowlins "The 
Irish School Master, ' ' who had many eccentricities, and 
who was one of the most picturesque characters in the 
early annals of the town. The "Slab School House" 
was built in 1824, being subsequently lathed and pebble- 
dashed. In addition to Nowlins, Amos Singley and 
Joseph H. Siewers were prominent teachers prior to 
the organization of the borough. In 1840, the "Valley 
School House" which occupied the site of the present 
high school building was erected, being then consid- 
ered as a model of its kind. The pioneer school of 
Upper Mauch Chunk was established about 1842. 

The high school of the borough was founded in 1855, 
being originally located in a building which had form- 
erly belonged to Park Seminary, a private school, 
which, after a short career was closed owing to a lack 
of patronage. The expense of maintaining the high 
school was at first equally apportioned between the 
borough and those attending the school. 

During the winter of 1858, a new schoolhouse was 
built at the Northern Liberties, just north of the point 
where the bridge crosses the river to East Mauch 



280 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Chunk. This was afterwards known as the ''Fort 
Sumpter School." 

At the time of the Rebellion this little settlement con- 
tained fourteen homes and two boarding houses, and 
more than forty-five volunteers went forth from here 
in defense of the Union. Most of these were of Irish 
birth or extraction. Strangely enough, the same lo- 
cality also furnished one soldier for the Confederate 
army. 

The first principal of the schools of the borough upon 
whom supervisory powers were conferred was Laird 
H. Barber, in 1877. 

Among those still living who as instructors contrib- 
uted notably to the success of the schools of Mauch 
Chunk, is James W. Swank, famous as a penman, now 
of Washington, D. C. 

The high school building now in use was completed 
in 1885, costing nearly forty thousand dollars. In 1905 
the Asa Packer School, in Upper Mauch Chunk was 
dedicated, being furnished, equipped and decorated by 
Mary Packer Cummings, the daughter of him in whose 
honor the building is named. 

She was the most liberal friend of the cause of 
popular education in the history of the town, regularly 
contributing several thousand dollars annually toward 
the maintenance of the schools, besides making many 
additional contributions. 

The excellent equipment and the high standard of 
efficiency of the educational system of the borough has 
largely been made jDOssible through her generosity. 
Her death occurred in 1912. 

The parochial schools conducted by the church of the 
Immaculate Conception were established in 1884, dur- 
ing the rectorship of Rev. M. A. Bunce. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 281 

Mauch Chunk has a very thorough fire-fighting or- 
ganization consisting of three well equipped and dis- 
ciplined companies, the nucleus of which was formed 
in 1833. 

The oldest of these organizations is Marion Hose 
Company No. 1, formed in 1853. After a short period 
the company disbanded, and the citizens of the town 
did fire duty without organization until 1866, when the 
company was re-organized. 

The Phoenix Hose Company had its inception in 
1868. After some years this company also disbanded, 
being re-organized in 1872. 

In 1874 the Diligent Fire Company of Upper Mauch 
Chunk was founded. Asa P. Blakslee is the present 
chief of the fire department of the borough. 

The oldest hotel in the place is the Mansion House, 
which was first known as the Mauch Chunk Inn. Va- 
rious additions have been built to the stone structure 
which comprised the original building. Edward Kim- 
ball was the first regularly installed landlord of this 
famous hostelry, which in the days of its splendor was 
frequented by the wealth and beauty of America. 

Formerly, too, it was the anthracite coal exchange, 
the operators from all parts of the hard coal regions 
gathering here periodically in the conduct of their busi- 
ness and for the adjustment of their affairs. 

Mr. Kimball was succeeded by John Leisenring, Sr., 
who was a very popular landlord. The building was 
owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company 
until 1873, when the title was vested in the Mansion 
House Hotel Company. It is now the property of D. E. 
Purcell and William Dods. 

Cornelius Connor, in 1833, erected the White Swan 
Hotel on the site now occupied by the American House. 
This was a frame structure, and was destroyed by the 



282 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

fire of 1849, after which event the present building, 
which has since been enlarged, was put up. 

One of the landmarks of Mauch Chunk in by-gone 
days was the Broadway House, which stood on the spot 
where the building of the Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation has since been erected. It was surrounded 
by towering pines, while the great rocks protruding 
from the ground around its base gave it a wild and 
picturesque appearance. This hotel was built by 
Daniel Bertsch in 1833. It was while seated within its 
hospitable portals, gazing at the terraced gardens on 
the opposite side of the street, that a traveling man 
once remarked : "Well, I have seen places before hav- 
ing eleven-story buildings, but this is the only town 
with eleven-story gardens that I have ever visited!" 

The Central Hotel, which is owned by Peter Schwei- 
binz, was built in 1889. 

The first" religious services held in Mauch Chunk, 
aside from the meetings of the Friends, or Quakers, 
who were among the earliest settlers, were conducted 
in the wheel-wright shop of James McCrea at the 
"Bear Trap," where the opera house now stands. 

The locality was thus designated by the pioneers of 
the town, after the waggish remark of one of Josiah 
White's workmen, who, being questioned by some 
curious strangers concerning the purpose of an experi- 
mental contrivance that was being tested in the creek 
at this point, replied: "We are making a bear trap." 

The organization which had its meeting place here 
was known as a Lord's Day school, of which James 
Biggers was superintendent. From this source sprang 
a neat frame church, the pulpit of which was open to 
all denominations. It eventually became the property 
of the Methodists, who, in the autumn of 1828, effected 




IxTKRioK St. .AFakk's Church, .Maich CnrxK, Showing Packkk 
^Iemorial Altar an'd Rkrkdos. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 283 

a church organization. William Coder, a local 
preacher, was the father of this congregation. Origi- 
nally the church formed a part of a six weeks' circuit, 
embracing the country between the boundaries indi- 
cated by the Delaware river, Stroudsburg, the Broad 
mountain and Pottsville. In 1838 Mauch Chunk be- 
came for the first time a station. The present build- 
ing, the third that has been owned by this congrega- 
tion was dedicated early in 1874 by the late Bishop 
Simpson. 

St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal parish, the mother 
of nearly all the churches of this denomination in the 
Lehigh Valley, was organized in May, 1835. The con- 
gregation had its inception in the year 1829, when Wil- 
liam H. Sayre, who had come to Mauch Chunk from 
Columbia county, began its upbuilding. He served as 
lay reader until a clergyman was called. 

In 1836 the parish was admitted into union with the 
Diocese of Pennsylvania, while three years thereafter 
the Sunday school was organized. The first church 
edifice was begun in 1840, completed in 1845, and con- 
secrated in 1852. The present building, which is de- 
signed with special reference to the surrounding scen- 
ery and which is one of the most beautiful and impos- 
ing structures of its kind in Pennsylvania, was begun 
in 1867, being consecrated two years later. 

The Packer memorial altar and reredos, a costly 
work of art, and the crowning feature of the interior 
of the church, was erected by the family of the late Asa 
Packer, one of the founders, and for many years a 
vestryman and warden of St. Mark's. 

The parish building, adjoining the church, which is 
a model of its kind, was also built as a memorial to Asa 
Packer, the donor being his widow, Sarah M. Packer. 



284 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

This parish has always taken an active part in 
diocesan affairs, and has manifested a lively interest 
in the general work of the church. 

Various affluent members of the church have left it 
liberal bequests, and it now is richly endowed. 

The First Presbyterian church was organized in No- 
vember, 1835. During that year, Eev. Richard Web- 
ster, then located at Easton, and engaged in mission- 
ary work far and near, began preaching here once a 
month. Nominally he was the founder of the church, 
and he served as its pastor until 1856. 

The first church building of the congregation was 
dedicated in 1837. It was small and was built of stone, 
being soon outgrown. The present fine building was 
begun in 1855, and was completed and dedicated four 
years later. 

Like St. Mark's, this congregation has had many 
prominent and wealthy families on its rolls, and they 
have given freely and largely to the church and its 
benevolences. 

The land upon which the first church of the Immacu- 
late Conception was built was acquired by Rev. Pat- 
rick J. Hennegan in 1849; the erection of the church 
building was begun during the following year. 

The history of Maucli Chunk as an independent 
parish begins with the pastorate of Rev. P. J. Coffey, 
who came here in April, 1853. It was during his time 
that the Asiatic cholera desolated the region. The 
good priest was assisted in giving the last rites of the 
church to the victims of this dread scourge by the ven- 
erable Bishop Neuman, of Philadelphia, the only Amer- 
ican whose name has yet been invested with the honors 
of sainthood under the authority of the Catholic 
church. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 285 

The cornerstone of the magnificent new church was 
laid during the rectorship of the present pastor, Rev. 
T. J. Larkin, on June 24, 1906; and the building was 
dedicated on October 4, 1908. 

The Church of the Sacred Heart at Nesquehoning 
forms a part of this parish. 

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran church was organ- 
ized in 1857 by Rev. E. A. Bauer. Services of this de- 
nomination were conducted in Mauch Chunk as early 
as 1835 by Rev. F. W. Meendson. The first house of 
worship owned by the congregation was the old stone 
church which had formerly belonged to the Presby- 
terians. Its present building in Upper Mauch Chunk 
was dedicated in 1879. 

Ebenezer United Evangelical church was built in 
1895, the congregation being the offspring of the 
church of the Evangelical Association, which was 
founded in Upper Mauch Chunk in 1857. 

Henry H. Webster, son of the founder of the First 
Presbyterian church, was the leading spirit in the 
establishment of the local branch of the Young Men^s 
Christian Association. 

The present society originated in a Railroad Men's 
Christian Association which was formed by Mr. 
Webster in Upper Mauch Chunk in the Spring of 
1878. This organization was succeeded by that which 
is now in existence in 1889. The home of the associa- 
tion at the time of its dedication, in 1894, was one of 
the finest in the United States. The building, together 
with the location, cost nearly seventy-thousand dol- 
lars, which sum was raised by popular subscription. 

Concert Hall, or the Opera House, owned by the mu- 
nicipality, and opened in 1882, was built jointly by the 
borough and a number of public-spirited citizens. It 



286 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY.: 

stands upon ground formerly occupied by the market 
house and town hall. 

The Dimmick Memorial Library, which contains 
about twelve thousand volumes, was built from a fund 
bequeathed to the town by Milton M., son of Milo M. 
Dimmick, a prominent Mauch Chunk lawyer and for- 
mer congressman, whose name it commemorates. The 
giver died in 1886, while the library was completed in 
1890. The original fund amounted to forty-five thou- 
sand dollars, which sum, by judicious handling, has 
now been increased to fifty thousand dollars. 

Mauch Chunk Lodge, No. 76, Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows, is the oldest among the secret societies 
of the town. It was instituted in 1842. 

There are three bodies of the time honored Masonic 
fraternity in the place. Carbon Lodge, No. 242, was 
chartered on December 27, 1849. Lilly Chapter, No. 
181, Royal Arch Masons, was constituted on December 
6, 1855, being named in honor of General William 
Lilly. Packer Commandery, No. 23, Knights Templar, 
the namesake of R. A. Packer, was instituted Septem- 
ber 28, 1866. The majority of the best men of the town 
have been identified with the fraternity, and their in- 
fluence and stability have rendered it prominent and 
prosperous. 

Mauch Chunk Lodge, No. 193, Knights of Pythias, 
was organized on October 19, 1869. 

Most of the patriotic and beneficial societies com- 
mon to the region have also been established here. 

Chapman Post, No. 61, Grand Army of the Republic, 
was named for Major Lansford F. Chapman, one of 
the many intrepid officers contributed to the cause of 
the Union by Carbon county. He was killed at the 
battle of Chancellorsville. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 287 

It was under the auspices of Chapman Post that the 
Carbon County Soldiers ' Monument, standing near the 
court house, was erected. It was dedicated in 1886. 
General Daniel E. Sickles, one of the heroes of Gettys- 
burg, was the orator of the occasion. 

The cemetery in Upper Mauch Chunk was laid out 
in 1823 by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. 
It is the only burying ground in the town, and it con- 
tains the remains of most of the men whose enterprise 
and influence, together with the lavish gifts of nature, 
gave to Mauch Chunk a celebrity out of all proportion 
to her population. The cemetery is graced by several 
notable examples of memorial architecture. 

Mauch Chunk and its surroundings hold a perennial 
charm for tourists and excursionists, who annually 
visit the locality with increasing numbers. The 
Switchback Railway, extending from here to Summit 
Hill, continues to be one of the chief attractions. It 
is operated chiefly for the accommodation of sight- 
seers from May to November of each year. 

Flagstaff Park, reached by the line of the Carbon 
Transit Company, has in recent years become a popu- 
lar resort. The name Flagstaff came into vogue about 
half a century ago. At that time, upon the very sum- 
mit of the mountain stood a hemlock tree, in all its 
stately grandeur, until one day during a severe storm 
it was struck by lightning, which divested it of its bark 
and branches, leaving the trunk uninjured. 

At the opening of the Civil War, a party of young 
men nailed to this staff a flag bearing the stars and 
stripes, which "here remained until torn to shreds by 
the bleak storms of winter. During the Franco-Prus- 
sian War, some sympathizing friends unfurled the 
Prussian flag from the same staff. But it was destined 



288 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

to a sad fate, for on the ensuing night the partisans of 
the French felled the famous flagstaff to the ground. 

On July 4, 1898, when the successful conduct of the 
Spanish- American War was stirring the patriotism of 
the nation, a cable was strung from the Flagstaff to 
the summit of Bear mountain, on the opposite side of 
the Lehigh, from which the largest flag ever swung to 
the breeze in America was suspended. It was over 
seventy-five feet long and fifty feet wide. 



CHAPTER XVIL 



MAUCH CHUNK TOWNSHIP. 



In considering the value of their natural resources, 
Mauch Chunk stands first among the townships of Car- 
bon county, while in population it is second only to 
Banks, which leads by a small margin. Together with 
the boroughs within its borders, it contains the richest 
deposits of anthracite coal known to exist in the world. 

The township was organized in 1827, its territory 
being taken principally from East Penn, while a small 
portion was taken from Lausanne, and subsequently 
a tract of land east of the Lehigh river was added. 
This addition was equal in size to about one-third 
of the township as at first constituted. 

The Nesquehoning creek, forming the northern 
boundary, flows eastwardly and empties into the Le- 
high opposite Coalport. The valley drained by this 
stream lies between the Broad mountain on the north 
and Locust mountain on the south. The last named 
forms an angle with Sharp mountain, which extends 
westwardly into Schuylkill county. Mount Pisgah, on 
the Lehigh, and Mount Jefferson, near Summit Hill, 
tower above the summit of this mountain. The Ma- 
honing mountain lies on the southern border of the 
township. Between this and Sharp mountain Mauch 
Chunk creek flows eastwardly into the Lehigh. Be- 
tween Locust and Sharp mountains is the Panther 
Creek Valley, where most of the coal in the township 
is deposited. 

The Landing tavern, situated at the junction of the 
Nesquehoning creek and the Lehigh, was the first dot 

289 



290 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

of civilization to appear upon this wild and moun- 
tainous tract, so entirely forbidding in appearance, yet 
containing a vast concealed treasure, which, when 
found, brought wealth and comfort to thousands. The 
spot where it stood was known as Lausanne. This tav- 
ern, erected at an early period in the last century, was 
the resort of hunters, surveyors, prospectors for coal, 
raftsmen and the occasional travelers who found their 
way into the picturesque but desolate valley of the 
Upper Lehigh. It was built at about the time of the 
opening of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike, the 
line of which diverged from the river at this point, fol- 
lowing a more direct course over the mountains toward 
Berwick. 

A man named Abram Klotz is suppposed to have 
been the first landlord of this famous old tavern. For 
a time it was kept by John Rothermel, father of the 
celebrated artist of that name. Another landlord was 
Isaac A. Chapman, who was appointed postmaster of 
Lausanne in 1817. The last keeper of the tavern, 
which was abandoned about 1873, was Jacob Buss. 

It was the intention of the founders of the Lehigh 
Coal and Navigation Company to locate their principal 
town at Lausanne; but the owners of the land there 
refused to part with it for a fair price, with the result 
that the present site of Mauch Chunk was chosen. 

The boroughs of Mauch Chunk, East Mauch Chunk, 
Summit Hill and Lansford are situated in this town- 
ship. Nesquehoning is now the only town of any great 
importance in the district which has not been incor- 
porated. Excepting that many of its workmen own 
their own homes, most of the real estate in the town- 
ship belongs to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- 
pany, and the mining and shipping of coal is the pre- 
ponderating industry. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 291 

Nesquelioning is, next to Summit Hill, the oldest of 
the mining towns of this company. The name is of 
Indian origin, signifying narrow valley. 

The coal produced at Nesquehonng was originally 
carried to Mauch Chunk on the Rhume Run gravity 
railroad, along the line of the present electric road be- 
tween the two places. This railroad was built in 1830, 
For years mules were employed to haul the empty cars 
back to the mines, being later displaced by a wood- 
burning locomotive, which was brought across the 
mountains from Tamaqua by teams. The gravity road 
was abandoned upon the building of the Nesquehoning 
Valley Railroad, since controlled by the Central Rail- 
road of New Jersey. 

The first house here was built for Thomas Kelly in 
1824. One of the memorable events in the early his- 
tory of the town was the celebration of the centenary 
of Washington 's birth, in 1832. The people of Lehigh- 
ton, Mauch Chunk, Lausanne and other places partici- 
pated in this patriotic function, one of the features 
of which was a great dinner, given at the home of N. 
Allen. 

This locality was at first popularly known as ''Hell's 
Kitchen," or "the Kitchen." 

Packer, Harlan & Company held the first lease of 
the mines at Nesquehoning, which were subsequently 
operated by various firms. Since 1867, they have been 
worked directly by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 
Company. 

Years ago it was thought that most of the available 
coal had been exliausted, but later developments proved 
this view to have been very erroneous, and at the 
present rate of production there is still sufficient coal 
remaining unmined in this district to last for an in- 
definte period. 



292 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

The first breaker at Nesquehoning was run by water 
power, and it is believed that with a single exception 
it was the only one thus operated in the anthracite 
region. 

The mines of this section are now drained by a 
tunnel four and one-half miles in length, extending 
from Nesquehoning to Coalport, near Mauch Chunk. 
This tunnel, which cost a fabulous sum, was begun in 
1906 and completed early in 1912. It is the purpose 
of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to ex- 
tend it westward through the Panther Creek Valley, 
perhaps as far as Tamaqua. 

The first school here was started in 1830. There 
are now two school buildings in the place, one of which 
accommodates the township high school. Twenty-two 
schools are maintained throughout the township, and 
a supervisory principal is employed. 

A postoffice was established at Nesquehoning in 1838 
with Joseph Minehard in charge. It was at first kept 
at the store of the company operating the colliery. In 
1910, the office was raised to the presidential rank. 

St. Patrick's Roman Catholic church, the first house 
of worship to be erected between Mauch Chunk and 
Tamaqua, was built in 1839, under the leadership of 
Rev. James Maloney. For some time it was attended 
by missionaries from Easton, and services were held 
only a few times each year. About 1848, Rev. Patrick 
J. Hennegan, a conspicuous figure in the early history 
of Catholicity in this portion of the coal fields, ap- 
peared upon the scene. He was at first stationed at 
Tamaqua, and had a large field of labor. In 1850, he 
took up his residence at Nesquehoning. The only re- 
minder of this church is the graveyard which adjoined 
it, in which lie the remains of many of the first Catho- 
lics of Mauch Chunk, who worshipped here before the 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 293 

organization of a church of their faith at that place. 
The church of the Sacred Heart is the successor of that 
first named. 

The Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 
1863 by Rev. Henry H. Davis. David Trevarrow was a 
local preacher of the congregation. The present build- 
ing was dedicated in 1890, and is a memorial to James 
Meeds, a former resident of Nesquehoning, who con- 
tributed liberally towards its erection. 

The First Baptist church of Summit Hill is the 
mother of the church of that denomination at Nesque- 
honing. 

St. Mary's Greek Catholic church, a handsome struc- 
ture costing sixteen thousand dollars, was l)uilt in 1910. 
It is a mission of St. John's church of Lansford. 

For some years past the town has been furnished 
with water by the Panther Valley Water Company, and 
it is lighted by the Panther Valley Electric Light, Heat 
and Power Company. The Tamaqua and Lansford 
Street Railway was placed in operation between here 
and Mauch Chunk in 1903. 

Nesquehoning Hose Company No. 1 was organized 
in 1909, and a substantial fire house was built in 1911. 

The only industry independent of the mines is the 
plant of the Mauch Chunk Silk Mill Company, built 
here in 1910. Charles Neast is the president of this 
company. 

The mines at Hacklebernie, owned by the Lehigh 
Coal and Navigation Company, and situated near 
Mauch Chunk, were opened in the early days and oper- 
ated by many different companies. The village that 
grew up about these workings is named after a town in 
England. 

The output of these mines was formerly sent to 
market over the Switchback Railroad, but the coal is 



294 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

now carried underground to the breaker at Nesque- 
honing. David Purcell and James Breslin, operating 
under the name of the Hacklebernie Coal Company, 
held the last lease of this property. 

Hanto, located in the Nesquehoning Valley, across 
the mountain from Lansford, is the namesake of 
George F. A. Hanto, who was one of the founders of 
the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. 

This company is now erecting a mammoth electrical 
power house at this point, which will cost several 
millions of dollars. The plant, when completed, will 
transmit electricity to New York, Philadelphia, and 
other distant cities, the theory being that this can be 
done more cheaply than to ship the coal required for 
generating purposes. 

Coalport is at the head of the Lehigh Canal, where 
boats take on their cargoes of coal for shipment to 
Philadelphia and intermediate places. 

Little Italy, a settlement of recent growth, is sit- 
uated on Locust mountain, near Nesquehoning. The 
place is inhabitated exclusively by Italians. 

Bloomingdale is a small farming community lying 
between the Sharp and Mahoning mountains, near 
Summit Hill. 

PACKER TOWNSHIP. 

The namesake of Hon. Asa Packer, who was then 
one of the associate judges on the bench of Carbon 
county. Packer township was organized in the year 
1847. Like Banks and Lehigh townships, Packer was 
carved from Lausanne. The Broad mountain extends 
through the entire length of the southern and middle 
portion of the township, while the Spring mountain 
lies in the northern part. Between these mountains 
is Quakake Valley, extending from east to west 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 295 

through the township, and containing all the land that 
is now under cultivation therein. It is watered by the 
Quakake creek, rising on the Spring mountain, in the 
western part of Banks township, and flowing east- 
wardly through Packer and Lehigh townships to Penn 
Haven, where it empties into the Lehigh river. The 
Mahanoy division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad runs 
parallel to Quakake creek through the township. A 
great deal of coal and other freight from the Schuyl- 
kill region passes over this branch, and formerly ex- 
cellent passenger service was maintained; but shortly 
subsequent to the deal whereby the Philadelphia & 
Reading Company for a time secured control of the 
Lehigh Valley, the passenger service was abandoned. 
Hudsondale and Gerhards are places within the town- 
ship where the company maintains sidetracks or yards 
for the convenience of shippers or receivers of freight. 
Hudsondale was formerly known as Hartz's Station, 
so named in honor of Colonel Jacob Hartz, one of the 
early settlers of this locality, then one of the stopping 
places on the line of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turn- 
pike, running from Berwick to Easton. 

That portion of this old highway leading from Hud- 
sondale to Mauch Chunk was allowed to fall into dis- 
repair and was finally abandoned to travel about 1885. 

It is now however being rebuilt in a most substan- 
tial manner, the cost being defrayed jointly by the 
county and the state. 

Another road, leading from Weatherly to Tamaqua, 
also runs through the township. 

The first settlers of Quakake Valley were Daniel 
Heil and George Glaze, who came to this section in 
1790. They came from beyond the Blue mountain, fol- 
lowing a road which had been built to a point four 



296 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

miles south of Tamaqua. The intervening fifteen miles 
were covered on a road of their own construction. 

Mr. Heil located on the farm owned by the late 
Frank Billig, while the other constructed his log dwell- 
ing on land now held by J. J. Gerhard. 

As illustrating the hardships encountered by the 
pioneers it may be mentioned that Heil carried an old- 
fashioned feed cutter on his back all the way from 
Dinkeyville, where he had formerly lived, to his new 
home. 

These men built a saw mill, the first in the valley, 
providing lumber and building material for themselves 
and the later settlers. 

Another early settler was Jonathan Winter, who 
cleared the farm on which Allen Gerhard now lives. 

Stephen Gerhard, the grandfather of Jonas Ger- 
hard, who, at the age of ninety, yet lives in the town- 
ship, was the first of that family to locate in Quakake 
Valley, He bought and cleared the farm which is 
to-day occupied by William Reed. Like most of the 
other pioneers of this section he came from the region 
south of the Blue Ridge. 

Daniel, one of the sons of Stephen Gerhard, became 
the father of six sons : Benjamin, Jonas, Joel, Daniel, 
Solomon, and Reuben. 

Solomon was the father of J. J. Gerhard, who is now 
living on the old homestead. 

The first of the Hinkle family in the township of 
whom any record remains bore the name of Philip. 
He originally lived on the place later occupied by John 
Faust, and now the property of John Bittner. From 
there he removed to the Round Head. 

Col. Jacob Hartz, who has already been mentioned 
came to the township about 1800. He was a clock- 
maker, and about 1812 built the Spring Mountain 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 297 

Hotel, occupying the site of the present hotel at Hud- 
sondale. He kept it until 1820, when he sold out to 
George Kelchner. 

Later he purchased several hundred acres of land 
near the foot of the Broad mountain. There he built 
the White Swan Hotel, which was kept by him and his 
descendants for many years. 

Colonel Hartz was elected sheriff of Northampton 
county in 1829. He had eight children, namely : Jonas, 
Susan, Sarah, Mary, Elizabeth, William, Abigail, and 
Hannah, 

Jonas became the father of Levi, Peter, George and 
Abram, the latter, who lives at Weatherly, alone sur- 
viving. 

Levi kept the Packer House at Weatherly until his 
death, which occurred about 1890. 

Peter spent his entire life in the place of his birth. 

An interesting story is told of a feat he performed 
when but a boy of about sixteen years. His father 
owned a powerful and high spirited black colt, which 
no amount of hardship seemed able to subdue, being 
in fact such a horse as was Rienzi, the celebrated 
charger of General Sheridan. 

With the idea in mind of curbing his spirit, Peter 
was ordered by his father to ride the horse to Easton 
and return, a total distance of one hundred and twenty 
miles, in a single day, or else kill him. He did as had 
been commanded, but fared worse than the horse in the 
endurance test which his compliance made necessary. 

Peter Hartz was several times elected to the office of 
county commissioner, and kept the Spring Mountain 
Hotel for a time. One of his daughters, Mary, the wife 
of Walter O'Neill, still lives in the district. 

John Wetzel was a resident of the township as early 
as 1812. He located on land now owned by the Lehigh 



298 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Valley Coal Company. He was a member of the family 
which produced the famous Indian fighters of that 
name, men whose deeds are enshrined in the pioneer 
history of the country alongside those of Boone and 
Crockett. His sons were John, Valentine, David and 
Aaron. A saw mill, the ruins of which may still be 
seen, was built by Wetzel on a stream that has since 
been named Wetzel's run. 

David Wetzel reared a large family in the old log 
house which his father built at the foot of the Spring 
mountain. 

He was of patriarchial appearance, and in his home, 
dispensed the kind of hospitality that only the gener- 
ous, old-fashioned country people could bestow. Much 
of his substance was spent in proving for coal on lands 
that he owned on the Spring mountain, and he died 
with the firm conviction that the treasure he sought 
existed there, but without having discovered it. Three 
of his sons, Thomas, Jonas and Amos, remain in the 
township. 

John Faust, another patriarchial figure, came to 
Packer township, then Lausanne, from Schuylkill coun- 
ty in 1829. He was the father of thirteen children, and 
his descendants hereabouts are quite numerous. 

Ephraim Balliet, originally from Luzerne county, in 
1839 settled on the farm now occupied by Arthur Bitt- 
ner. He served for years as a justice of the peace. 

In 1829 George and Benneville Keim erected a grist 
mill on the Quakake creek, about two miles above Ger- 
hards Station. It was purchased by John Faust in 
1841, and it was by him removed to its present location 
near Gerhards Station, in 1849. It is now owned and 
operated by William S. Dietrich. 

Samuel W. Hudson came to the township in 1859, 
purchasing property on which he erected a foundry 
and machine shop. A saw mill, which had previously 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 299 

been owned by William Koons was on the creek. The 
saw mill was operated by Mr, Hudson for about 
twenty years, while he conducted the foundry and ma- 
chine shop until 1881. He also became owner of the 
stone grist mill which was erected at Hudsondale in 
1869. In addition to this he dealt in mine timber on an 
extensive scale, becoming one of the foremost business 
men of the county. He died January 17, 1885, and his 
son, S. B. Hudson, succeeded to the business. 

The firm of Hoover Brothers, headed by Elijah 
Hoover, soon after the close of the Rebellion, began 
the manufacture of powder in the western portion of 
the township. Having had an explosion or two, they, 
in 1873, sold out to the Laflin Powder Manufacturing 
Company, which rebuilt the mills and continued the 
business until 1878, when another explosion resulted in 
the removal of the enterprise to the vicinity of Wilkes- 
Barre. In 1886 the Tide Water Pipe Company erected 
its pumping station at Hudsondale. This company 
operates an oil line which originally extended from 
Rixford, near Bradford, Pa., to Bayonne, N. J., a dis- 
tance of approximately three hundred and fifty miles. 
The line has recently been built westward into Illinois. 
This company was the pioneer in the construction of 
long distance pipe lines, being driven to try the des- 
perate experiment through the discrimination prac- 
ticed in favor of the Standard Oil Company by the rail- 
roads. The oil, in its crude state, is pumped through 
a six inch pipe all the way from the oil fields to tide 
water. Hudsondale was originally the sixth station on 
the line, the oil being forced from there to Change- 
water, N. J., a distance of sixty miles. The average 
quantity of oil pumped per day is eleven thousand bar- 
rels. A. J. Romig is the local superintendent for the 
company. 



300 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

M. L. Smith, in 1887, established the Hudsondale 
Ochre Works at this place. The product is red ochre, 
ground exceedingly fine, and is used as a base in the 
manufacture of certain grades of paint. The main 
building in which the mill is housed was formerly oc- 
cupied by the machine shop and foundry of S. W. 
Hudson. A vein of good ochre, situated about two 
miles west of the mill, supplies the raw material for 
this industry. From fifteen to twenty men are em- 
ployed, while the mill is kept running day and night. 
M. L. Smith died in 1908, and his brother, J. Rowland 
Smith, is now superintendent of the concern. 

The Hazleton Water Company erected a pumping 
station at Hudsondale in 1897, having purchased a 
tract of eighty acres of land from S. B. Hudson. The 
company has two reservoirs at this place, and two 
large pumps, having a total capacity of four million 
gallons daily, Torce the water over the Spring moun- 
tain to Hazleton, a distance of seven miles. The plant 
is now under the direction of John Scanlon. 

In 1906 the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company built 
a coal storage plant at the foot of the north side of the 
Broad mountain, about half a mile below Hudsondale. 
It has a capacity of approximately two hundred and 
fifty thousand tons, and coal is stored and re-loaded 
there as is expedient. 

Another large storage yard of this description was 
erected by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company on 
the south side of the Broad mountain, near Hanto, in 
Packer township, during 1908. 

These are all the industries located in the township, 
the bulk of the population being engaged in agricul- 
tural pursuits. Most of the farms are reasonably well 
kept and productive, and Quakake Valley is the leading 
farming section in the northern part of the county. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 3Q2 

Scarcely any heavy timber remains in the township, 
but formerly its forests were the principal dependence 
of its people. The Broad mountain which is now de- 
nuded and bare, producing little but huckleberries and 
scrub oak, was once covered with stately forests of 
white and yellow pine ; most of this timber was sold in 
the rough state for use inside the mines. Fires, which 
have annually been allowed to go unchecked on this 
mountain, have killed off most of the young timber. 
Nearly all of the land is classed as being unseated. 

Much has been spent at various times in proving for 
coal on the north slope of this mountain, but always 
without avail. As late as 1850, wild game abounded on 
the mountain, and Samuel Young, who enlisted for the 
war with Mexico, killed forty-eight deer there during 
the fall before his departure with the army. 

The first school house in the township was built in 
1823, near the Spring Mountain Hotel. Eleven years 
later the church in the western portion of the township 
was erected, and a part of the building partitioned off 
for school purposes, being so used until 1868. Subse- 
quently a school house was built near Krop's Crossing. 
The three buildings now in use stand on substantially 
the same sites occupied by the original buildings. 
Four teachers are employed, while the schools are 
modern and up-to-date, both as regards equipment and 
in methods of teaching. 

The only church in the township is that which has 
already been referred to as having been built in 1834. 
It was originally a log structure, and was located on 
land donated by John Faust. This building was torn 
down in 1868, when the present edifice was erected. 
Some years ago this was remodeled and much im- 
proved. It is known as St. Matthew's Lutheran and 
German Reformed church. 



302 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

In 1905 the Bethany Union Sunday School chapel 
was built at Hudsondale, where a Sabbath school has 
been maintained for many years. 

The Spring Mountain House and the White Swan 
Hotel, both built by Colonel Jacob Hartz, have already 
been mentioned. The former was destroyed by fire in 
1893, being then owned by Patrick Garra, while the 
other was recently torn down. Garra built a new house 
on the site of the old, and this is owned by his estate. 

The place kept by Charles Hinkle on the road to 
Tamaqua is the only other tavern in the township. 

A postoffice was established at the store of Samuel 
Wolf about the year 1820. Upon his removal from the 
township the office was transferred to the tavern stand 
of Jacob Hartz, and the landlords acted as postmasters 
until about 1858. Soon after the building of the rail- 
road through the township, Hudsondale became a sta- 
tion, being so named in honor of S. W. Hudson, who 
then became the postmaster. Later the postoffice was 
kept in the telegraph office of the Tide Water Pipe 
Company. It was abolished in 1903, when a rural de- 
livery route, starting from Weatherly and covering 
the inhabited portion of the township, was instituted. 

The Hudsondale Grange Telephone Company and 
the Packer Township Telephone Company, both con- 
necting with the Bell system at Weatherly, furnish ade- 
quate service to the people of the township. The 
former was organized in 1910, with J. A. Werner as 
president, while the latter came into being during the 
year subsequent. Allen Bittner is its president. 

PALMERTON BOROUGH. 

Palmerton, the youngest borough of Carbon county, 
and one of the model communities of the state, is of 
very recent growth. Until the autumn of 1912, when 




z 

g 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 303 

the town was incorporated, it formed a part of Lower 
Towamensing township. 

It owes its existence and its many excellencies solely 
to the enterprise of the New Jersey Zinc Company of 
Pennsylvania, the works of which are located near here. 

Its name is derived from Stephen S. Palmer, the 
president of this company. 

The place is beautifully located near the western 
bank of the Lehigh within the northern shadows of the 
majestic Blue Ridge, commanding a view of the wild 
grandeur of the Lehigh Water Gap. The southern 
portion of the town borders on the Aquashicola creek. 

This stream was thus named by the Delaware In- 
dians, and in their tongue signified the place of fishing 
with hush-nets, 

Palmerton is on the line of the Central Railroad of 
New Jersey, being one hundred and ten miles distant 
from New York, and eighty-two miles from Philadel- 
phia. Mauch Chunk lies ten miles to the northward. 

The first white man to settle on the present town site 
of Palmerton was Nicholas Opplinger, who in the year 
1752 was appointed constable of Towamensing town- 
ship. 

It was on the farm of this German that Benjamin 
Franklin and his little army were quartered in Janu- 
ary, 1756, while enroute from Bethlehem to New Gnad- 
enhiitten, now Weissport, where they built Fort Allen. 

When the Indian troubles of 1755 broke upon the 
frontier, the settlers of this vicinity erected a block- 
house, surrounded by a stockade, immediately in the 
rear of the spot where the First National Bank of 
Palmerton now stands. 

The land on which it was built originally belonged to 
Nathaniel Irish, one of the first residents of Bethlehem, 
and whose property adjoined that of Opplinger. 



304 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Within the enclosure of this fortification, later 
known as Fort Lehigh, the settlers and their families 
gathered for protection. 

Among those who sought the security afforded by 
the protecting walls of this little haven of safety was a 
man named Boyer and his family. 

Boyer had established his home about a mile and a 
half east of the fort on land until recently owned by 
Josiah Arner and James Ziegenfuss, and that still held 
by George Kunkel. 

One day, accompanied by his son, Frederick, then a 
lad of thirteen, and several of his other children, he 
went from the fort to his farm to attend the crops. 

The father was ploughing and his son busied himself 
with hoeing, while the rest of the children were in the 
house or playing nearby. 

Suddenly a party of hostile Indians appeared upon 
the scene, and the father, seeing them, called to Fred- 
erick to run, and himself endeavored to reach the 
house. 

Finding that he could not do so, he ran toward the 
Aquashicola, being shot through the head as he reached 
the farther side. 

Frederick, who had escaped to an adjacent wheat 
field, was captured and brought back. The Indians 
then scalped his father in his presence, took the horses 
from the plow, and making captives of his sisters, 
started for the Stony Ridge, in the rear of the house. 

There they were joined by another party of Indians, 
and uniting their forces, they marched northward to 
Canada. 

On the journey the sisters were separated from their 
brother and were never again heard from. 

Frederick was held as a prisoner among the French 
and Indians in Canada for five years. Upon his re- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 305 

lease he was sent to Philadelphia, whence he proceeded 
to his old home to take possession of the farm. 

Soon after his return he married a daughter of Con- 
rad Mehrkem, with whom he had four sons and four 
daughters. He died on October 31, 1832, aged eighty- 
nine years. His remains lie in St. John's Union Cem- 
etery. 

The inscription on his tombstone states that he was 
born in 1732, and that he was nearly one hundred years 
of age when he died. This is thought to be a mistake, 
because it was admitted by his descendants that he was 
but a lad when captured, and there were no Indian 
troubles in this region prior to the year 1755, when 
Braddock was defeated and the Indians were incited 
to deeds of violence. Frederick Boyer's descendants 
in the county are still quite numerous. 

Fort Lehigh, commanding the approach to Lehigh 
Gap, and being situated at the junction of the road 
leading to Fort Allen, on the north, and that extending 
to Fort Norris, on the east, in Monroe county, occu- 
pied a very important position. 

It was garrisoned by provincial troops for a number 
of years, and there were sometimes as high as thirty 
men stationed there. 

Nothing definite is known of the close of its history ; 
but it appears to have been abandoned as a station in 
1758, when hostilities had almost come to an end, only 
to be again occupied in 1763, when Pontiac's war broke 
out and the Indians began to make incursions into 
Pennsylvania. 

The last mention that can be found of it refers to the 
latter year, at which time Captain Jacob Wetherhold 
with a company of soldiers was posted here. 

The incident bringing this intelligence to light is 
decidedly to the discredit of that officer and the men 
under his command. 



306 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

During the year 1760, the Moravians established a 
missionary settlement among the Indians in the pres- 
ent township of Polk, Monroe county, locating it on 
the exact spot where Frederick Hoeth and his family 
were slain in the uprising of 1755. 

The place was called Wechquetank, and prospered 
exceedingly for a few years. But when the Indian 
troubles of 1763 began, there was grave danger of a 
repetition of the dreadful occurences of 1755. Not 
only were the Moravians and their converts disliked 
by the hostile Indians, but they were also suspected by 
the settlers and the soldiers, who looked upon their 
villages as convenient lurking places for the savage foe. 

Wechquetank had several times been threatened with 
destruction by the whites, and some of the more pru- 
dent of the converts had forsaken the mission on ac- 
count of the two-fold danger which menaced it. 

Among the number was an Indian named Zachary, 
his wife and child. 

During the month of August, 1763, they returned to 
the village for a brief visit, earnestly trying to per- 
suade their friends who remained there to leave the 
locality. 

A woman named Zippora accompanied them as they 
started on their return journey to the Susquehanna. 

They stopped for the night at Fort Lehigh, and were 
permitted to sleep in the hayloft of a barn near the 
fort. 

During the darkness they were rudely aroused from 
their sense of fancied security when they were sud- 
denly attacked by the soldiers. 

Zippora was thrown upon the thrashing floor and 
killed. 

Zachary escaped from the building, but was pursued, 
and, with his wife and little child, put to the sword, 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 307 

though the mother begged for their lives upon her 
bended knees. 

It was deemed best to abandon Wechquetank soon 
after this event. The place was burned to the ground 
by the whites during the fall of 1763. 

The ruins of Fort Lehigh, in the form of a heap of 
stones, may still be seen on the western bank of a 
little stream which passes through Palmerton on its 
way to the Aquashicola. 

One of the first steps taken by the New Jersey Zinc 
Company of Pennsylvania in locating its immense 
manufacturing establishment at Hazard, about a mile 
north of Palmerton, was the organization of the Pal- 
mer Land Company. 

It was wisely decided that the works should be erect- 
ed at some distance from the point where it was deter- 
mined to build the town which would be necessary for 
the accommodation of its employes. 

Horace Lentz, of Mauch Chunk, was appointed to the 
agency of this land company, and during the year be- 
ginning in September, 1897, over four hundred acres 
were purchased. 

Most of the land which was thus acquired by the 
company was under cultivation, while the improve- 
ments thereon consisted of the necessary farm build- 
ings. 

Those from whom the first purchases were made 
were: John Craig, William George, William H. Gru- 
ber, John Smith, Smith Brothers, and the estate of 
Charles Straup. 

The company's holdings were augmented from time 
to time by additional purchases, and the present town 
site now comprises about five hundred acres. 

The works at Hazard, which give employment to 
nearly two thousand men, were finished and placed in 
operation in the fall of 1899. 



308 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Over two hundred acres are covered by the plant, 
which is operated day and night. 

The finished products of this manufactory are oxide 
of zinc, spelter, and spiegeleisen. 

Zinc ore, the raw material from which these are 
made, is obtained from mines of the New Jersey Zinc 
Company in Sussex county. New Jersey. 

Palmerton was planned and plotted during the year 
1899. An experienced engineer in the person of Har- 
rison N. Blunt was now appointed as the agent of the 
land company. Most of the improvements which have 
since been made were carried forward under his imme- 
diate supervision. 

Delaware avenue, the principal thoroughfare of the 
town, having a width of ninety feet and extending 
through the entire property from east to west, was the 
first laid out. Lehigh, Lafayette, and Columbia ave- 
nues followed in the order named. 

After the establishment of the streets, and before the 
houses were completed, water and sewer systems were 
installed. 

A sewage disposal plant, modeled after the system 
originated by the late Colonel George E. Waring, 
formerly street commissioner of New York, was also 
installed. Every precaution was observed to make the 
new town sanitary and healthful. The result is that 
Palmerton has the lowest death rate of any community 
in the Lehigh Valley. 

Not only did the company wish its employes to live 
in neat, substantial homes, but it was willing to make 
it possible for them to own them. Virtually it has 
acted as a big building and loan association. 

Under the plan devised in the beginning, and which 
is still in force, the company requires the applicant for 
a home to pay ten per cent, of the price of the house 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 309 

and lot in advance, the company then erecting the house 
according to plans approved by him. 

After the house is complete and occupied, monthly 
payments must be made, which are so graduated that 
in three years and seven months, thirty-five per cent, 
of the value of the premises shall have been deposited. 

The purchaser then acquires title to the property, 
while the company takes a mortgage on the remaining 
sixty-five per cent., due in five years, and bearing in- 
terest at the rate of four and four-tenths per cent. 

In the event of default of payments, the purchaser 
may under certain specified conditions return the house 
to the company, and receive back the money he has de- 
posited, due allowance being made for repairs, re- 
newals, and the natural depreciation of the property. 

Should a man die during the continuance of his con- 
tract, his widow may, if she so wishes, receive back all 
of the payments made from the beginning on account 
of the purchase price, together with interest at five per 
cent. 

This plan has worked most satisfactorily and suc- 
cessfully to all concerned. 

Lots are also sold for cash, or on the instalment plan. 
In the latter case, ten per cent, of the value of the lot 
must be paid in advance, while the remainder is pay- 
able at monthly intervals, covering a period of two 
years. 

Unlike most towns, Palmerton has been developed 
in obedience to a well defined and intelligent plan. 

Not only is this noticeable in the plotting and general 
arrangement of the streets, but it is also true archi- 
tecturally and in other respects. 

The houses are all designed under competent direc- 
tion, while due regard is given both to individual ex- 
pression and to utility. 



310 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Electric lights are furnished at moderate rates, 
while the Palmerton Telephone Association, which is a 
sub-licensee company of the Bell system, affords cheap 
and efficient service in this direction. 

A little to the westward of the center of the town, 
and fronting on Delaware avenue is a beautiful public 
park, nine acres in extent. 

This park, with its scheme of ornamentation, was de- 
signed by Major Barrett, a famous New York land- 
scape engineer, who died before the completion of the 
work. 

Many thousands of dollars have been expended by 
the company in its maintenance and improvement. 

One of the beauty spots of Palmerton is that portion 
known as ' ' The Eeservation. ' ' 

Here, thirteen acres of land have been set aside by 
the zinc company as a place of residence for the local 
heads of its various departments. 

In 1908 the company established a hospital which is 
open to the public. Three years later, a large addition 
was built to it. 

This is the only institution of its kind in Carbon 
county. It has from the beginning been in charge of 
Doctor John W. Luther, and is furnished with X-ray 
apparatus, laboratories, and full modern equipment. 

Having made ample provision for the physical and 
material well-being of its workmen and their families, 
the company did not stop here. 

Proceeding on a principle which is frequently ig- 
nored and lost sight of, it was felt by those in authority 
that corporation responsibility toward the human 
beings under their charge warranted the support of an 
institution that would offer fuller opportunities of life, 
not only to their employes, but to their wives and chil- 
dren. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 3II 

Accordingly, in 1907, a sociological department was 
organized and a neighborhood house established. 

The children of kindergarten age were provided with 
playgrounds, amusements, and instruction suited to 
their understanding. 

Manual training and general educational facilities 
were supplied for the larger boys, while classes in 
domestic science and industrial handwork were organ- 
ized for the girls. 

Reading and lounging rooms for men were fitted up, 
and, during the winter months, mothers ' meetings, de- 
voted to the general conduct of the home, were held. 

As the work grew, larger quarters became necessary. 
A new neighborhood house, opened during the summer 
of 1911, was erected. This is now the social and civic 
center of the town. 

Every facility for carrying on the work which has 
already been outlined is provided for in this building. 
It also contains a well selected circulating library; a 
gymnasium, which can quickly be converted into a 
small theatre or auditorium; bowling alleys, club 
rooms, with pool and billiard tables, baths, and the like, 
the equal of any to be found in the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Associations or clubs of the large cities. 

Miss Florence Hughes, an experienced settlement 
worker, and a graduate of Pratt Institute, with a corps 
of trained assistants, has been in charge of the work 
from the start. 

Every attempt is made to encourage individual en- 
terprise, and to those desiring sites for manufacturing, 
business, or residence purposes, Palmerton offers 
many attractions and advantages. 

A large addition to the company's works, situated 
east of the town, opposite Millport, has recently been 
built, and further extensions are contemplated. 



312 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Palmerton is well supplied with schools, churches, 
stores, and hotel accommodations. 

The town grew so rapidly that the problem of pro- 
viding school accommodations was a difficult one for 
the township authorities to solve. In 1909, however, a 
handsome brick building, housing all the schools of 
Palmerton, as well as the high school of the township, 
was erected. The high school was established in 1904. 
The first church to be erected in this immediate vi- 
cinity was that of the Evangelical Association, built in 
1844, largely through the efforts of Jacob Snyder and 
Jacob Bauman. 

This was the mother of quite a number of the 
churches of this denomination in the Lehigh Valley. 
When the United Evangelical church was organized 
the old building was abandoned. It is still standing 
and is put to occasional uses. 

Trinity United Evangelical church was built in 1896. 
A union Sunday school chapel was erected by the Re- 
formed and Lutheran people in 1902. 

St. John's Protestant Episcopal church was given 
to the people of the town by Stephen S. Palmer as a 
memorial to his wife. It is a beautiful edifice, and is 
constructed of native stone, having been designed by 
H. J. Hardenbergh, a celebrated New York architect. 
The church was dedicated in 1906. 

The Roman Catholic church here was built in 1908. 

The corner stone of the First Reformed church was 
laid during the month of January, 1912. 

Missions have also been established in the town by 
the Lutheran and Presbyterian churches, and these 
will no doubt become self-sustaining congregations. 

The principal hotel of Palmerton is the Horse Head 
Inn, a splendid hostelry, opened in 1900. 




•Si 






HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 3^3 

The remaining hotels are the Palmerton, Waldorf, 
Golden Anvil, and that until recently conducted by Cal- 
vin Nicholas. 

Palmerton 's post-office was established in 1900. 
Prior to that date the office was located at Lehigh Gap. 
During 1911, the postal savings system of the govern- 
ment was extended to this place. 

Early in January, 1907, the First National Bank of 
Palmerton, having a capital stock of $25,000, was or- 
ganized. D. 0. Straup and Allen Craig have served 
the institution as president and cashier, respectively, 
from the beginning. 

The water supply of the place is obtained from arte- 
sian wells, situated on the slope of the Blue mountain, 
south of town. These wells furnish about 400,000 gal- 
lons every twenty-four hours. 

During the fall of 1911, the Towamensing Volunteer 
Fire Company was organized, with Thomas Craig as 
president. A lot and building were provided by the 
company, and modern equipment has been installed. 

The Chestnut Ridge Railway, extending from this 
place to Kunkeltown, Monroe county, which is ten miles 
distant, connects at Palmerton with the Central Rail- 
road of New Jersey. 

The tracks of this road have been elevated through 
Palmerton. 

An independent industry of the town is the silk mill 
of the Read and Lovatt Manufacturing Company, es- 
tablished in 1903. 

At the first borough election, held in November, 1912, 
Dr. John W. Luther was chosen to fill the office of chief 
burgess. 



314 HISTORY OF CARBON COUI^JTY. 

PABEYVILLE BOROUGH. 

The borough of Parryville is located on the eastern 
bank of the Lehigh river and on the line of the Central 
Railroad of New Jersey, about half a dozen miles 
below Mauch Chunk. 

The first settler here was Peter Frantz, who came to 
the locality in 1780. Leonard Beltz and Frederick 
Scheckler took up land in this vicinity in 1781. 

Soon thereafter Scheckler and Frantz erected a 
stone grist mill on the banks of Poho Poco creek, which 
flows into the Lehigh at this point. This property 
passed into the possession of Peter and Jacob Stein 
in 1815. The latter conducted the mill, while the 
former built a large stone hotel, which was later util- 
ized as a dwelling house. 

Upon the organization of the Pine Forest Lumber 
Company, about 1836, this place was made its head- 
quarters. The company owned extensive tracts of rich 
timber land in the northern part of the county and in 
the southern portion of Luzerne. Its mills were estab- 
lished on Poho Poco creek, near the river, and the 
manufacture of lumber, was carried on on a large scale. 
The president of the company was Daniel Parry, and 
as the settlement grew up around these mills, the place 
became known as Parrysville, and later, Parryville. 

In 1836, the Beaver Meadow Railroad Company com- 
pleted its line to the opposite side of the river from 
this place, and Parrj^ille became the terminus and 
shipping point. 

The coal wtis here transferred from the railroad 
cars to the boats of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 
Company. The freshet of 1841, however, swept away 
the wharves, trestle work, and chutes of the company, 
together with the roadbed from Parryville to Penn 
Haven Junction. The railroad was rebuilt from Penn 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 315 

Haven to Mauch Chunk, but the stretch from the latter 
place to Parryville was abandoned. From this time 
forth, Mauch Chunk was the shipping point of the 
Beaver Meadow Company. 

New life was injected into the village when, about 
1855, Dennis Bauman, his brother Henry, and others, 
established an anthracite blast furnace here. This fur- 
nace was run by water power furnished by Polio Poco 
creek until 1857. More capital being necessary to the 
proper conduct of the business, a stock company, 
known as the Carbon Iron Company, was then formed, 
Dennis Bauman being chosen as its president. The 
new company made various improvements and in- 
creased the capacity of the works. The water power 
of the creek was now no longer adequate, and steam 
was introduced as the motive power. An additional 
furnace was erected in 1864, and another in 1869; but 
the revolution which took place in the iron business 
about this time and the great panic of the seventies, 
which closed up nearly every iron manufacturing es- 
tablishment in the Lehigh Valley, worked severe hard- 
ship to the company. 

In the year 1876, the property passed into the hands 
of the Carbon Iron and Pipe Company, and a pipe 
manufacturing department was added. The experi- 
ment of making pipe out of iron direct from the cupola 
was tried at this place, but without success. Large 
quantities of pipe were, however, turned out in ac- 
cordance with the established process. The works are 
now operated by the Carbon Iron and Steel Company, 
of which M. S. Kemmerer, of Mauch Chunk, is chair- 
man. This is the only iron furnace in the Lehigh Val- 
ley lying north of the Blue mountain. It is the only 
industry in the village. 

Parryville became an independent school district on 
March 4, 1867. 



316 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

It was incorporated as a borough early in the year 
1875, Dennis Bauman serving as its first chief bur- 
gess. The town had 657 inhabitants in 1880. In 1900 
the population numbered 723, but during the last de- 
cade there was a falling off in the number of people 
living here. 

The first road passing through this locality was that 
built by the Moravians in 1748, extending from Bethle- 
hem to Gnadenhiitten. It was known in this region as 
the Fire Line Koad, and described a loop over the hills 
between Parryville and Bowmanstown. From 1756 to 
1761, during the time when Fort Allen was garrisoned, 
it was used as a military road. 

At the time of the massacre of Gnadenhiitten, a com- 
pany of militia from the Irish settlement in Northamp- 
ton county are said to have come in pursuit of the In- 
dians as far as the hill overlooking the hollow where 
Parryville now stands. Fearing to go any farther in 
the darkness, they are said to have fired down into the 
bushes, and to have then departed. From this circum- 
stance the term "Fire Line" is supposed by some to 
have been derived. Others adhere to the belief that the 
name had its origin from the fact that the elevated 
ground traversed by the road in question was em- 
ployed to build signal fires upon during the Indian war 
period. 

The first schoolhouse here was opened about the 
year 1820. Like most of the other schoolhouses erected 
through the region at that time, it was of logs. The 
annual term amounted to but three months. A modern 
brick structure now houses the three schools of the 
borough. 

Public religious services were first conducted at 
Parryville about the year 1840. Meetings were first 
held in the schoolhouse, while Methodist ministers also 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 317 

addressed meetings at occasional intervals in private 
houses. 

In 1863 the Methodists built a brick church which was 
dedicated on the 13th of December of that year by- 
Bishop Scott. 

The present building of the Reformed denomination 
was erected in 1897, the edifice previously used having 
been destroyed by fire in 1896. 

There is also an Evangelical church in the town. 
The Iron Exchange and the Fairview Inn are the only 
hotels in the place. The latter was licensed in 1907, 
having formerly been occupied as a dwelling by Dennis 
Bauman. It is now the property of his son, Robert 
Bauman. 

PENN FOBEST TOWNSHIP. 

Penn Forest township is bounded on the north by 
Kidder, on the east by Monroe county, on the south by 
Franklin and Towamensing townships, and on the west 
by the Lehigh river. Prior to the year 1768 it was a 
part of that vast district lying north of the Blue Ridge 
which was known as '* Towamensing," or ''the wilder- 
ness." Being then divided, Towamensing township 
contained all of Northampton county lying east of the 
Lehigh, and thirty-six miles north of the Blue Ridge. 
Following the War of Independence, part of the terri- 
tory now belonging to Monroe county and that com- 
prised within the confines of Kidder and Penn Forest 
townships was set off as Tobyhanna township, which 
became a part of Monroe county upon its organization 
in 1836. In 1842 Tobyhanna township was divided, and 
that portion of territory now contained within the 
limits of Kidder and Penn Forest townships was 
named "Penn Forest." When Carbon county was 
erected, in 1843, Penn Forest township became a part 



318 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

thereof, while, in 1849, the northern portion was set oft' 
as Kidder townshii3. Muddy run forms the northern 
boundary of the township, while Drake, Stony, and 
Bear creeks are the other principal streams. All of 
these flow eastwardly into the Lehigh. Wild creek 
flows through the southeastern section. The Pocono 
mountain traverses the township, and much of its sur- 
face is wild and rough. Dense forests of pine and 
hemlock formerly flourished here, and the region is 
still indefinitely referred to as the ' ' Pine Swamp. ' ' In 
the early days this swamp, which extends northward 
into Luzerne county, was known as the "Great 
Swamp," or the "Shades of Death." It received the 
latter appellation after the battle of Wyoming, when 
many of those who had escaped from the clutches of 
the Indians flew to it for protection, and perished 
within its gloomy shades. It was in this swamp, too, 
that Teedyuscung and his warriors had their hiding 
places during the Indian war of 1755-56. 

An interesting incident in the early history of Penn 
Forest township was the capture, here effected, of a 
detachment of insurgents who had raised the standard 
of revolt against the Federal Government in what is 
known as Fries' Rebellion, which took place princi- 
pally in Bucks and Northampton counties in the fall 
and winter of 1798-99. This organized opposition to 
constituted authority has also been variously termed 
the "Milford Rebellion," the "Hot Water War," and 
the "House Tax War." Soon after the inauguration 
of John Adams as President of the United States, on 
March 4, 1797, a number of laws were passed which 
were looked upon with great disfavor by many of the 
people of the country. Among them were the alien 
and sedition laws, and another known as the house tax 
law. This last named law was a crude and ill-con- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 319 

sidered measure, and the efforts of the government to 
enforce it met with particular opposition thoughout 
eastern Pennsylvania. According to the provisions of 
the act, assessors were directed to measure, count and 
register the panes of glass in each and every house, 
and to make their number and size the basis of a direct 
tax for government revenue. Opposition to this 
scheme of taxation first manifested itself in public 
meetings of protest; later, threats were made, while 
occasionally those who attempted to enforce the law 
were assaulted and imprisoned. It appears that the 
most violent and uncompromising opponent of the law 
was John Fries, a Philadelphia vendue crier, who also 
had a taste for soldiering and politics, and who trav- 
eled about the country in pursuit of his daily occupa- 
tion. Through his influence the rebellion was actually 
organized in Lower Milford township, Bucks county, 
on October 5, 1798, when fifty men attached their sig- 
natures to an ultimatum declaring open revolt if 
further efforts were made to enforce the law. There 
was no response from the government to this declara- 
tion of war, one of the most peculiar ever issued by 
any band of insurgents in our annals. One of its 
features was that every assessor doing his duty, or 
attempting to do it, should be shot in the legs, taken 
into custody, and fed on rotten corn. In a short time 
four hundred men had flocked to the banner of revolt, 
and, led by Fries, who wore a plume in his hat and 
carried a sword, this army in jubilant spirits started 
out in quest of United States assessors who were at- 
tending to their duties. The army marched northward 
into Northampton county, its ranks being swelled by 
additional recruits as it proceeded conqueringly from 
one neighborhood to another. Scores of citizens who 
had been arrested and cast into prison for opposing the 



320 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

''house tax law" were liberated, while the United 
States marshals who had taken them into custody were 
themselves jailed. Upon promising to discontinue 
their duties, the officers of the law were set free. 

Nearing Easton, Fries was advised to retrace his 
steps, being informed that the people of Northampton 
county were strong enough to resist the enforcement of 
the obnoxious law without re-enforcements. Fries, 
however, thirsted for military glory, and refused to 
return. Moving up the Lehigh Valley, he and his men 
continued arresting assessors, shooting them in the 
feet and putting them in barns as prisoners. Reaching 
the Irish settlement. Fries was confronted by Colonel 
Thomas Craig, who had fought in the Revolution, and 
who later came to what is now Carbon county. Colonel 
Craig was loyal to the government which he had aided 
in establishing, and he peremptorily ordered the insur- 
gents to disperse. When they manifested hesitation in 
complying with the request, the Home Guards, who had 
seen service in the War of Independence, were ordered 
to report for action. But before blood was shed, the 
insurgents had separated, one portion going south and 
the other making for the Pine Swamp in Penn Forest 
township, where many of them were captured by a de- 
tachment of General McPherson's troops on their way 
from the scene of the Whiskey Rebellion in the western 
part of the state. One of those taken captive paid 
the death penalty, — not for the treason of which he 
was guilty, but for highway robbery, a felony in those 
days. 

Fries and those of his followers who remained loyal 
to him were pursued and taken prisoners in the lower 
part of Northampton county. The leader of the revolt 
and his lieutenants were tried in the United States 
Court at Philadelphia. Fries was found guilty of trea- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 321 

son and sentenced to be hanged ; but his execution was 
postponed and he was finally pardoned by President 
Adams. His subordinates were also leniently dealt 
with. 

The solitude which reigned in the virgin forests that 
covered the ground now contained within the limits of 
Penn Forest township was not disturbed by the sound 
of the lumberman's axe until about 1835. 

About this time companies were formed for the pur- 
pose of removing and manufacturing the timber. Mills 
were soon erected at available sites on the streams, 
and around these temporary settlements sprang up. 
In addition to the dwellings of the laborers, these cen- 
ters of activity usually contained a store, a tavern and 
a schoolhouse. During the years intervening between 
1840 and 1860 most of the valuable timber was cut and 
marketed, although lumbering operations on a large 
scale were carried on for many years after this date. 
As time elapsed, fires in the woods destroyed many of 
the mills and much of the timber. Some of the mills 
were rebuilt and others not, while the denuded lands 
were allowed to remain desolate and unproductive. 

Of the many fires which wrought havoc in the woods 
of the township, the greatest and most destructive 
was that which began near the mouth of Mud run on 
May 14, 1875. The fire burned slowly for eight days, 
when a strong wind came from the west, and in a few 
hours mills, houses, sawed lumber and standing trees 
for miles about were reduced to ruin. The ravages of 
the flames were not confined to this immediate section, 
the fire spreading eastward into Monroe county and 
doing much damage there. This was a great blow to 
the prosperity of the township, and each decennial 
census since that time has shown a decrease in its 



322 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

population. In 1880 the district had 653 inhabitants, 
but in 1910 the number had dwindled to 417. 

Much of the unimproved land now produces large 
crops of huckleberries annually, and the gathering and 
marketing of these berries has become a source of con- 
siderable income to the people of the district. Among 
the natural products of the township are building sand 
and ochre. 

While the large timber has now practically disap- 
peared, much mine timber is still being shipped. 

One of the principal points of interest in the town- 
ship is the hatchery of the Penn Forest Brook Trout 
Company, which is situated at the junction of Hell and 
Wild creeks. This is one of the largest hatcheries of 
its kind in the world, and was established in 1895 by 
H. A. Butler and W. A. Leisenring, of Mauch Chunk. 
The land on which it is situated was purchased from 
William Sebring. Additional purchases of land were 
made from time to time, and the entire tract now con- 
tains several thousand acres. A portion of this has 
been inclosed as a deer park. The hatchery was for a 
period under the immediate supervision of Nathan R. 
Buller, now Fish Commissioner of Pennsylvania, and 
regarded as the foremost trout hatcher in the country. 
The controlling interest in the property has changed 
hands a number of times since the establishment of the 
enterprise. 

About the year 1861 Samuel Donner commenced the 
distillation of wintergreen here. Many others have en- 
gaged in this business, as well as the distillation of oil 
from the birch, since that time. 

The oldest tavern now in the township is the Stony 
Creek Hotel, which was opened by Enos Koch, one of 
the first settlers, and kept by him for about half a cen- 
tury. The present owner is J. J. Smith. A new build- 



HISTOKY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 323 

ing, replacing the original, was erected in 1860. About 
1838 Frederick Suter opened the Hunters' Hotel on 
the Pocono mountain, and on the state road leading 
from Emmetsburg to White Haven. He remained the 
landlord until 1850, when the place passed into other 
hands. It was in this hotel that a recruiting officer of 
the government was shot during the Civil War. The 
shot was fired from without through a window by a 
person whose identity has never been discovered. The 
building is now occupied as a farm house. 

The Idlewild Hotel, on the road to Mauch Chunk, 
was first kept by Frank Eckhart, who secured a license 
for the place about the year 1890. The original build- 
ing was destroyed by fire, while the present house was 
built by J. F. Christman who has been succeeded as the 
landlord by W. H. Bander. 

The township early accepted the free school law, 
and in 1844, a year after the organization of Carbon 
county, three schools were in operation. At present 
there are only two, one being situated at Meckesville, 
in the eastern portion of the district, and the other on 
Drake's creek, in the western end of the township. 

Christ Lutheran church is the only house of worship 
in the township. It is located on the road leading from 
Mauch Chunk to Albrightsville, and was erected in 
1883 on land donated by John W. Reed. 

SUMMIT HILL BOROUGH. 

One of the most far famed spots in eastern Pennsyl- 
vania is Summit Hill. It was here that the old hunter, 
Philip Ginter, accidentally found anthracite coal in 
1791. The town is about nine miles distant from 
Mauch Chunk, and is situated near the summit of 
Sharp mountain at an elevation of more than sixteen 
hundred feet above sea level. This point of vantage 



324 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

furnishes a commanding view of the surrounding 
country for many miles, while the air, scented with the 
fragrance of the verdure of the hills, is pure and in- 
vigorating. 

The surface of the soil here is covered with white 
gravel, lending an appearance of neatness and clean- 
liness to the streets of the borough not usually found 
in coal mining communities. 

This general locality was formerly known as the 
''Old Mines," because it was here that operations were 
first begun in the anthracite coal region. 

It was in 1818 that the Lehigh Coal Mine Company, 
the forerunner of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 
Company, began active operations at Summit Hill, but 
years elapsed before the settlement thus started pre- 
sented the appearance of an established town. 

One of he earliest residents was James Broderick, 
who came to the locality in 1821, bringing with him his 
wife, the first woman to make her home in the embryo 
town. 

Other early settlers were Patrick Breslin, the grand- 
father of Andrew Breslin; Eobert and Andrew John- 
son, and Joseph Gormley, the latter being accompanied 
by his wife and nine children. 

In 1826, there were but five houses in the vicinity, 
while four of these were situated west of the present 
site of the town. All were constructed of logs, and 
that of James Lehman, a foreman, was tlie only one of 
the five which was two stories in height. 

The point where coal was first mined or ''quarried" 
is a little to the southwest of the built up portion of 
the borough. Lying south of Eailroad street, and di- 
rectly in the rear of the Summit Inn is a large bank 
of clay; this was formed in laying bare the first an- 
thracite coal produced in commercial quantities in the 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 325 

world. Here it was that that giant industry, which has 
been such a potent factor in transforming our civiliza- 
tion, bringing material comfort and greater happiness 
to millions, had its birth ! 

Summit Hill did not begin to present the appearance 
of an established town until late in the thirties, when 
the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company built many 
houses for the use of its employes. 

It was not until ten years later, however, that lots 
were sold and individual enterprise was permitted to 
assert itself. 

Among the first purchasers of lots were : J. Edward 
Barnes, Nathan Patterson, D. D. Brodhead, Jacob 
Minich, Charles Hoffman, James Denton, Merritt Ab- 
bott, and Daniel Minich. In 1850 Abram Harris 
bought a lot upon which he erected the Eagle Hotel, 
which is still standing. Merritt Abbott and Alexander 
Lockhart in 1851 secured title to a piece of land upon 
which they built a foundry. This building stood for 
about twenty years, when it was destroyed by fire, and 
was never replaced. The development of the mines 
was naturally followed by the establishment of mer- 
cantile houses and other places of business, resulting 
in due time in the growth of a village of fair propor- 
tions on the mountain top. 

In the early days of mining in this vicinity, leasing 
and the giving of contracts was practiced to some ex- 
tent. Among the prominent contractors were: Asa 
Packer, Daniel S. Bertsch and Company, E. A. Doug- 
lass, A. A. Douglass, Holland, Barber and Company, 
and Belford, Sharpe and Company. At one period the u^ 
mines were leased to the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre 
Coal Company. Most of these contracts or leases ex- 
pired in January, 1866, a few continuing a year after 
that date. With unimportant exceptions, the mines 



326 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

have since been worked directly by the Lehigh Coal 
and Navigation Company. 

With the opening of the mines in the Lansf ord basin, 
lying in the valley below Summit Hill, two inclined 
planes were built to carry the coal from the valley to 
the summit, whence it was conveyed to the Lehigh over 
the Switchback Railroad which was constructed from 
this place to Mauch Chunk in 1827. The first of these 
planes was placed in operation in 1846. The second 
connected with the mines at Coal Dale. The building 
of the Nesquehoning Valley Railroad, which was be- 
gun in 1861, together with other causes, operated to 
draw life from the older town on the mountain and 
bestow it upon the younger rival, Lansford, in the val- 
ley below. Upon the completion of this railroad, which 
later was absorbed by the Jersey Central system, coal 
was no longer shipped by way of Summit Hill. In 1870 
the construction and repair shops of the Lehigh Coal 
and Navigation Company were removed from Summit 
Hill to Lansford. 

The driving of Spring tunnel during the forties 
marked the beginning of underground mining in this 
locality. 

Perhaps the most far famed curiosity of the region, 
and the principal attraction of Summit Hill, is the 
Burning Mine, which was discovered to be on fire on 
February 15, 1859. This mine was opened in 
1850. The progress of the fire has been in a westerly 
direction from the town, and during the half century 
of its existence it has traversed approximately a mile, 
consuming millions of tons of coal in its slow but deso- 
lating march. Repeated efforts have been made to ex- 
tinguish this devouring under-ground conflagration, 
and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company has ex- 
pended vast sums of money in that endeavor. Quite 







< 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 327 

naturally the first attempt made to quench the fire con- 
sisted in flooding the mine with water ; but, surprising 
as it may seem, it was not successful, the heat being so 
intense as to convert the rock bordering upon the coal 
into a molten mass, which on cooling, crumbles to 
pieces. The plan next tried was that of cutting off the 
vein and boring holes down to the coal in advance of 
the fire, and then filling these with water, mixed with 
culm, or coal dirt. This scheme also proved a failure. 
There being grave danger of the fire eventually spread- 
ing to the mammoth workings of the Lansford basin, 
turning the whole Panther Creek Valley into one vast 
volcano, another heroic effort was made to head it off, 
and it is hoped that this may be successful. The 
method last employed was to cut a trench across the 
vein and to build a solid clay barrier twelve feet wide, 
reinforced on either side with walls of concrete, within 
the opening. The execution of this plan, which was 
conceived by W. A. Lathrop, president of the Lehigh 
Coal and Navigation Company, involved a great engi- 
neering feat, while requiring the outlay of hundreds of 
thousands of dollars. The work was completed in liQlO. 

The origin of this famous fire is not positively 
known, and the stories that are told concerning its be- 
ginning are various. According to one account it was 
started by some boys who were playing on the slope, 
building the fire to warm themselves. In the early days 
of underground mining, it was a common practice to 
have a stove burning at the bottom of a ventilating 
shaft in order to create a draft of air toward the sur- 
face, and some well informed men hold to the theory 
that the mine was set on fire by the accidental upsetting 
of one of these stoves. 

One of the landmarks of Summit Hill for many 
years was the old town hall, which also served the pur- 



328 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

pose of an armory. It was erected by a stock com- 
pany, known as the Town Hall Association, which was 
organized in 1854, principally through the influence of 
Merritt Abbott and J. J. Wintersteen. Its walls were 
of stone, and in appearance it resembled a French bas- 
tile, being flanked in front on either side with towers 
of solid masonry, each of which contained four long 
and narrow windows. 

This building became the home of the Carbon Guards, 
a military company commanded by Wintersteen. 

At the breaking out of the Civil War, the Guards 
went to the front, but so few of the men returned that 
the organization was disbanded. Later, the building 
was used as an armory by Company F of the Ninth 
Kegiment, National Guard of Pennsylvania. About 
1890, the hall was purchased by the municipality, and 
an addition was built to it for purposes of a fire house. 
The interior of the structure, which stood on the site 
of the present town hall, was destroyed by fire on 
March 25, 1908. The stones forming the walls were 
used in building the foundations of the Citizens' Na- 
tional Bank of Lansford. 

Summit Hill formed a part of Mauch Chunk town- 
ship until January 14, 1889, when it was incorporated 
as a borough. At the first election, which was held in 
the town hall on the 19th of the ensuing February, 
Joseph Richards, a successful business man, now liv- 
ing at Slatington, was chosen as chief burgess. For 
years the borough was divided into four wards, but in 
1911 it was reduced to three. 

The postoffice here was established on February 6, 
1832, Richard Hay being the first postmaster. 

A building housing all the schools of the place was 
erected in 1875. This, with an addition which was 
added, is still in use. Close by stands the magnificent 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 329 

new high school building, one of the finest structures of 
its kind in Pennsylvania. 

It is admirably adapted for the purpose which it is 
intended to serve, and was built in 1911 at a cost of ap- 
proximately ninety thousand dollars. 

A new town hall, replacing that destroyed by fire 
was put up in 1908. The ground floor of this building 
is given over to Diligence Fire Company, No. 1, which 
was chartered in the fall of 1897. 

The borough is supplied with water by the Summit 
Hill Water Company, which was chartered in 1876. 
The principal source of supply is an artesian well in 
Bloomingdale Valley, where a pumping station is main- 
tained. A large storage reservoir is situated on top 
of the mountain, sixty-five feet above the level of the 
town. George Kline was the first president of the 
water company. 

A modern sewer system, costing $60,000, was but 
recently built by the borough. Summit Hill has been 
electrically lighted since 1894, the service being fur- 
nished by the Panther Creek Valley Heat, Light and 
Power Company, of Lansford. In 1897, the line of the 
Tamaqua and Lansford Kailway Company, an elec- 
trical road, since absorbed by the Eastern Pennsyl- 
vania Railways Company, was built into the town. 

The principal hotels in the place are the Eagle and 
the Summit Inn. The former has already been men- 
tioned as having been built in 1850 by Abram Harris, 
while the latter has been open for the accommodation 
of the public since 1908, and is owned by T. E. Davis. 

In 1873, Daniel Eveland and Robert Harris began 
the publication of the Weekly Intelligencer, the first 
local newspaper. It was issued for about two years. 

During the fall of 1879, J. W. Malloy and P. F. 
Gildea established the Summit Hill and Lansford Rec- 



330 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

ord, Gildea retired from the firm in 1880, while Mal- 
loy removed his printing establishment to Lansford in 
the spring of 1884. 

The Miners' Bank was organized in 1873, Anthony 
Snyder being its president, and its capital stock being 
fifty thousand dollars. In the fall of 1880 the bank 
was transferred to Lansford; it was closed in 1883, 
and its affairs were adjusted by assignees. 

The Homestead Building and Loan Association, 
which has been remarkably successful from the start, 
and through the agency of which many of the people 
of the borough have become the owners of the homes 
in which they live, was organized in 1893. The assets 
of the association at the end of its first fiscal year 
amounted to $18,130.00, while in 1911, at the close of 
the eighteenth year, the total had reached $387,000.00. 
Excepting a period of four years, E. E. Scott has been 
the secretary of the association since the beginning. 

The Workingmen's Building and Loan Association, 
which was chartered in 1906, is also in a flourishing 
condition. 

The adherents of the Presbyterian denomination 
appear to have been among the first to take up church 
work at Summit Hill, and the congregation they 
formed was one of the pioneer religious organizations 
of the Lehigh coal field. As early as 1835, Eobert 
Henry, a Covenanter, organized a Bible class at the 
boarding house of Alexander McLean, also a Presby- 
terian. During the following year, James Edgar 
settled in the community and assumed a prominent 
part in the weekly assemblages, which partook largely 
of the nature of prayer meetings. Among the first 
missionaries here was Rev. Richard Webster, for many 
years thereafter pastor of the Presbyterian church at 
Mauch Chunk. During the summer of 1836, Rev. Web- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 33I 

Bter induced Andrew Tully, a young theological student 
at Princeton to come to Summit Hill to teach school 
and to organize a Sunday school. The latter was es- 
tablished in July of that year, and was led for three 
successive summers by the young student. Later, G. 
W. Smith, of Mauch Chunk, revived the school and 
served as its superintendent. The church itself was or- 
ganized on April 19, 1839, and was termed the Presby- 
terian church of Summit Hill and Tamaqua. It began 
with twenty-eight members, four of whom resided at 
Tamaqua and the remainder at Summit Hill. In May, 
1844, the congregation became independent of Ta- 
maqua and was named the First Presbyterian church 
of Summit Hill, Rev. A. G. Harned becoming the first 
regular pastor. The congregation worshiped in the 
school house until 1847, when a church building was 
erected. This edifice was enlarged and improved in 
1872, while the present brick structure replaced it in 
1895. The Sunday school, which was the forerunner of 
this church, has had but two superintendents in over 
sixty years. J. M. McCready, who succeeded Nathan 
Patterson as superintendent, has served in that ca- 
pacity since 1878. 

Missionaries of the Roman Catholic church paid oc- 
casional visits to Summit Hill as early as 1826. Sub- 
sequent to 1832 the priests stationed at Pottsville and 
at Tamaqua came here quite frequently. In 1849 the 
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company donated a piece 
of land for the erection of a church and for purposes 
of a burial ground. Under the leadership of Rev. 
Patrick J. Hennegan the church was built soon there- 
after. It was named in honor of St. Joseph. Father 
Hennegan 's name is one of much prominence in the 
early history of Catholicism in this region, and he 
ministered to the spiritual wants of his people over a 



332 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

large extent of territory. The first resident pastor 
was Father Manahan, who came in 1852. During the 
term of service of Rev. James Wynn, late in the seven- 
ties, a handsome parochial residence was built. The 
cornerstone of the present church edifice was laid on 
June 21, 1881. The new church was dedicated on the 
10th of December of that year by Rt. Rev. J. F. Shana- 
han, Bishop of Harrisburg. St. Joseph's church is the 
mother of St. Ann's, of Lansford, and of St. Mary's, at 
Coaldale. 

St. Philip's Episcopal church was once commonly 
known as the "Bell Church," because it was then the 
only house of worship in this vicinity equipped with a 
bell. The first baptism recorded in this parish was 
performed by the Rev. Peter Russell, September 13, 
1845, although a parochial organization was not ef- 
fected until November, 1849. The cornerstone of the 
church building was laid on the first Saturday evening 
of July, 1850, by the Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, Bishop 
of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. He was assisted by 
the rector, the Rev. Peter Russell. In 1882, during the 
incumbency of Rev. Charles E. Fessenden, the church 
was remodeled and improved. Like most churches 
planted in mining towns, St. Philip's has suffered 
greatly from removals. During its history many 
prominent coal operators and other influential men 
have been connected with this little parish. 

St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran church had its be- 
ginnings about the year 1849. Prior to that time, loyal 
Lutherans walked from this place to Tamaqua every 
Sunday to attend services in a church of their own de- 
nomination. Upon the organization of the congrega- 
tion here by Rev. Oberfeld, of Tamaqua, services were 
for a time held monthly in the Presbyterian church. 
Services were also conducted in the old schoolhouse. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 333 

In 1865, the Reformed and Lutheran people erected 
a union church in which both worshipped until 1880, 
when the Lutherans secured the old German Methodist 
church, and thereby became independent. For some 
years the congregation had no regular pastor, and was 
served by theological students. In 1897, during the 
pastorate of Rev. H. C. Erbes, the present church was 
erected. The corner stone was laid on September 5th 
of that year, while the dedicatory services were held on 
the 12th of December. 

The First Baptist church was built in 1852. This was 
the mother of the churches of that denomination at 
Nesquehoning and at Lansford. Its membership has 
been greatly depleted by deaths and removals. 

St. Paul's Reformed church was organized by Rev. 
John Eichenbach. He came here from Allentown in 
1856, serving the congregation for about twenty-five 
years. As has already been shown, the Reformed and 
Lutheran people of Summit Hill worshipped together 
until 1880, a union church having been erected in 1865. 
The Reformed congregation became the sole owner of 
this property, upon the withdrawal of the Lutherans. 
In 1904 a handsome new church was built, and the so- 
ciety to-day is thriving and prosperous. 

The members of the Methodist Episcopal church also 
maintain a flourishing organization here. 

The various fraternal and beneficial societies are 
well represented at Summit Hill. The Grand Army 
Post, which was organized in 1869, was named in honor 
of Colonel Eli T. Connor, one of Carbon county's most 
gallant soldiers in the Civil War. 

Summit Hill is remarkable for the number of ceme- 
teries within its borders, there being eight, all told. 
This is partly accounted for by the fact that it is the 
place of interment for the people of both Lansford and 



334 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Coal Dale, in which communities there is no suitable 
site for the location of a burying ground. 

St. Joseph's Catholic church has two cemeteries — 
one adjoining the church and another to the eastward 
of the town. The latter was purchased late in the sev- 
enties. 

The Presbyterian cemetery was opened at about the 
time of the establishment of that church, while that of 
the Grand Army has been in existence since a short 
time subsequent to the organization of the Post. 

The other cemeteries are: St. Michael's Roman 
Catholic, St. John's Greek Catholic, Orthodox Greek, 
and St. Peter's and St. Paul's Polish cemetery, all of 
which are of recent date. 

The romantic interest which naturally attaches to 
this vicinity, as the place where anthracite coal was 
first mined — the fascinating story of Ginter's discov- 
ery, and the wonders of the Burning Mine — annually 
draws thousands of sightseers and tourists to Summit 
Hill. The majority of these travel over the Switch- 
back Railroad from Mauch Chunk. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

TOWAMENSING TOWNSHIP. 

Towamensing townsliip is bounded on the north by 
Penn Forest, on the east by Monroe county, on the 
south by Lower Towamensing, and on the west by 
Franklin township. 

The Poho Poco, or Big creek, flows eastwardly across 
the full breadth of the township. Pine run and Wild 
creek, flowing southwardly, are its principal tributaries 
within the township. The surface of the land is of a 
rolling nature, and is principally given over to agri- 
culture. 

Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian missionary, spent 
some time in this portion of Carbon county in the year 
1742, when he negotiated a treaty with the Indians at 
the spot on which, a few years later, the mission of 
Gnadenhiittten was established. 

This whole section of country was christened by him 
as ''Saint Anthony's Wilderness," and it was so desig- 
nated on a map published in 1749. The name, however, 
did not strike a popular chord among the settlers, and, 
later, the term Towamensing, meaning a wilderness, 
was applied to all that section lying north of the Blue 
Ridge, and was known as Towamensing District. 

In a petition for the division of the district, ad- 
dressed to the Northampton county court, dated June 
22, 1768, the length of the district is given as thirty-six 
miles. 

In response to the prayer of this petition, the Lehigh 
river was made the dividing line, and the territory west 
of the river was organized as Penn township, while 
that on the east retained the name of Towamensing. 

335 



336 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

After this division was made, Towamensing town- 
ship embraced all of the territory north and east of the 
Lehigh river, within the confines of the county. 

Chestnut Hill was taken from Towamensing anterior 
to the year 1783, as was Tobyhanna, at a later date. 
In 1836 these two became a part of Monroe county, 
while in 1841 the lower part of this territory became 
Penn Forest township, which in 1843 was attached to 
Carbon county. 

During 1841 Towamensing was again divided, and 
Lower Towamensing was set off. Franklin township 
was taken from the territory of Towamensing in 1851, 
since which time there have been no territorial changes. 

It appears that the first permanent settlement in 
what is now Towamensing township was made at about 
the time of the Revolutionary War. 

Tradition tells of a family named Abbot, which re- 
sided on the banks of the Poho Poco creek, and the 
members of which were cruelly massacred by the In- 
dians. The luckless victims of the hate and fury of the 
aborigines were buried in the ground to their knees, 
while their bodies were stuck full of pine splints, to 
which the torch was applied, and they were literally 
roasted alive. 

There is little record of the old families who settled 
within the present limits of the township. Among 
those whose descendants are still in the township, how- 
ever, were the Strohls, the Eckerts, the Smiths and the 
members of the Beer family. 

In 1795, General Thomas Craig purchased the land 
where Stemlersville is now situated. The old house 
which he there erected is still standing; in 1814 he re- 
moved to Lehigh Gap. Daniel Stemler, of Northamp- 
ton county, became the owner of the property in 1829. 
He became possessed of a large tract of land through 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 337 

additional purchases. Upon taking possession of the 
property, Mr. Stemler reopened the tavern which at an 
earlier date had been kept by a man named Frederick. 
He built the present brick building in 1852, and con- 
ducted a tavern therein until his death, which occurred 
in the year 1871. It is now kept by his son, Nathan 
Stemler. Daniel Stemler, in 1864, erected the building 
which has since been used for the purposes of a store. 
In 1866 it was purchased by Paul Kresge, his son-in- 
law, who, in turn has been succeeded by his son, 
Charles H. Kresge. 

In 1855 a stage and mail route between Lehighton 
and Broadheadsville, and touching Stemlersville, was 
established. It was operated until 1911, when it was 
abandoned. With the establishment of the mail route, 
a postoffice was opened, with Daniel Stemler as post- 
master. The office was successively held after him by 
William Schoenberger, Robert Laubach, Nathan Stem- 
ler and Paul Kresge. The postoffice was abolished 
upon the introduction of the free delivery system 
throughout the township in 190.3. 

Trochsville, located in the western portion of the 
township, near the Monroe county line, is the namesake 
of Captain Lynford Troch, who was once the owner 
of the land here. 

The tavern at Trochsville was built by Jacob Rickert 
about 1854. He kept it for a few years, and then sold 
it to Captain Troch, who was killed during the Civil 
War. It is now conducted by Joseph Schaetzel. 

Lynford Troch opened a store here in 1856, while a 
postoffice was established, with Troch as postmaster. 

The office was after a time abandoned, but was later 
re-established as Carbon postoffice. John Behler 
served for a time as postmaster, being succeeded by 
Harrison Kunkel, who also kept the store. His son. 



338 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

H. F. Kunkel succeeded him as proprietor of the store 
in 1909, and, a year later, as postmaster. With the ex- 
tension of Ihe rural delivery service to this locality, the 
office was finally abolished in 1911. 

The hotel at Seiberlings is kept by J. S. Ettinger. 
A grove, which has grown popular as a camping place 
during the summer months, adjoins the hotel. 

On the road leading from Trochsville to Little Gap, 
Peter Jones, many years ago, erected a brick house, 
which he kept as a hotel. The place became known as 
Jonesville. The hotel was used as a dwelling house 
after a few years. 

Jerusalem church, at Trochsville, was erected in the 
year 1848. The society is union, being composed of 
members of the Lutheran and German Eeformed 
churches. The present Lutheran pastor is Rev. H. E. 
Moyer, while the Reformed preacher is Rev. F. W. 
Smith. H. F. Kunkel is the superintendent of the Sun- 
day school of this church. A Sunday school is also 
maintained in the schoolhouse at Stemlersville. 

This township accepted the free school law in 1841, 
prior to which there were no schools in the district. 
The population being scattered, nine schools, with as 
many teachers, are now necessary. For the same rea- 
son, Towamensing township has many miles of high- 
ways to maintain. 

The farmers of the township market most of their 
produce at Weissport, Lehighton, and Mauch Chunk, 
and many of them are up-to-date and prosperous. 

The Indian Ridge Rural Telephone Company, or- 
ganized in 1909, furnished local and long-distance serv- 
ice to many homes in the township. Its line connects 
with the Bell system at Lehighton. The line of the 
Consolidated Telephone Company also crosses the 
township. 



' :?r HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 339 

WEATHEBLY BOBOUGH. 

The borough of Weatherly, which is the largest and 
most important town in the upper portion of Carbon 
county, had its beginnings in the operations of the 
Beaver Meadow Railroad Company. Its later growth 
and development were brought about chiefly through 
the agency of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, by 
which the first named corporation was in 1866 ab- 
sorbed. The place is picturesquely situated between 
the Broad and Spring mountains on the banks of Hazle 
creek and on the Beaver Meadow and Hazleton di- 
vision of the Lehigh Valley system. The distance by 
rail from this point to Mauch Chunk is about fourteen 
miles. The incorporated territory of the town com- 
prises four square miles, and is bounded on the north, 
east, and southeast by Lehigh township, on the north- 
west by Lausanne township, and in the west and south- 
west by Packer township. It is divided into four 
wards. 

Formerly the town was called Black Creek, from the 
color of the water of the stream on which it is situated. 
Originally the dark color of the water of the creek was 
due to the fact that dense forests of hemlock grew in the 
swamps where the stream has its source ; but it is now 
contaminated with sulphur water from the coal mines 
lying north of the Spring mountain. In 1848, upon the 
establishment of the postoffice here, the name of the 
place was changed to "Weatherly, being so christened in 
honor of David Weatherly, one of the directors of the 
Beaver Meadow Company, who was a watch and clock 
maker. He promised to present the place with a town- 
clock in recognition of the compliment conferred upon 
him by the bestowal of his name, but failed to redeem 
the pledge. The warrantee owners of the ground upon 
which Weatherly is built were Samuel S. Barber and 



340 ' HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

John Romig, Sr. They purchased the land for the 
valuable timber that stood on it. The first settlement 
was made on the Romig tract about 1825, when Benja- 
min Romig erected a saw mill and a dwelling on the 
west side of the creek. The dwelling occupied the site 
of Elmer Warner 's store, while the saw mill stood op- 
posite the Lehigh Valley depot. Benjamin Romig 
moved his family to this place in 1826. The first lum- 
ber sawed in his mill was for the building of a school 
house in what is now known as Hudsondale. Soon after 
1830 Romig erected a large house on the west side of 
the creek, near the ''Rocks," and securing a license, 
conducted a tavern therein. 

A portion of the Barber tract was purchased by Asa 
Packer, and about 1835, John Smith, who was con- 
spicuous among the early residents, came to the place 
to supervise the clearing of the land and to take charge 
of Mr. Packer's interests in the vicinity generally. 
Under his immediate directions a saw mill was put up 
about a mile below Black Creek Junction, while a store 
was opened just across the creek from Romig 's saw 
mill. A little later than this William Tubbs opened a 
tavern on the present site of the Gilbert House. 

Barring the saw mill, the first attempt at manufac- 
turing here was made by Samuel Ingham, president of 
the Beaver Meadow Railroad Company, and others. 
They made a certain kind of locks for a time, but the 
project was soon abandoned. 

Black Creek could boast of but a few houses until the 
completion of the Beaver Meadow Railroad, in the fall 
of 1836. It was then made the stopping place for the 
heavy engines and crews of the company. The com- 
pany at first located its foundry and machine and re- 
pair shops at Beaver Meadow. To overcome the heavy 
grade above Weatherly, two inclined planes, each about 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 34I 

half a mile in length, were constructed. Difficulty was 
experienced in getting the locomotives up these planes 
to the shops for repairs, and, in 1840, the shops were 
removed to Weatherly. While this was detrimental to 
the interests of Beaver Meadow, it gave added impetus 
to the growth of Weatherly. The shops were located 
near the point where the town hall now stands, and 
were driven by water power. Hopkin Thomas, who 
became one of the most prominent figures in the indus- 
trial affairs of the Lehigh Valley, was the master me- 
chanic in charge. The shops were swept away by the 
freshet of 1850, being rebuilt the same year. In 1855 a 
stretch of new railroad was laid from Weatherly to 
Hazle Creek Junction, a distance of nearly two miles. 
Upon its completion, the inclined planes were aban- 
doned. The section of road replacing the planes is still 
in use, and is known to railroaders as the Weatherly 
Hill. It has a grade of one hundred and forty-five feet 
to the mile, and has witnessed many thrilling runaways. 
With the abandonment of the planes the company 
moved its shops to the east side of the creek. As the 
mines were developed and as railroading progressed, 
the capacity of the shops was increased from time to 
time, while the town grew and prospered correspond- 
ingly- 

Weatherly was a part of Lausanne township imtil 
1863, when it was organized as a borough. At the time 
of the taking of the census of 1870, it contained 1,076 
people. During the succeeding decade, the population 
was nearly doubled. 

Philip Hoffecker succeeded Hopkin Thomas as mas- 
ter mechanic in the machine shops early in the fifties. 
When the Beaver Meadow Railroad was consolidated 
with the Lehigh Valley he was retained by the latter 
company, spending the remainder of his life in its 



342 ' HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. " " 

service. Under his supervision many of the finest loco 
motives in the country were built, his name standing as 
a synonym for excellence over the whole Lehigh Val- 
ley system. Not only did the shop over which he had 
charge turn out good locomotives, but it also produced 
good men. Those who served their apprenticeship 
under him readily found employment elsewhere, and 
Weatherly to-day takes pardonable pride in the success 
that many of her sons have achieved in industrial pur- 
suits in all parts of the country. Mr. Hoffecker died in 
1891. Another prominent figure in the town for more 
than half a century was Daniel Eouse. In 1855 he was 
placed in charge of the car shops here, and during 
nearly two generations of service in that capacity, he 
achieved an enviable reputation for mechanical and 
executive ability. The car shops were totally destroyed 
by fire on the morning of July 8, 1880, the work of re- 
building them being completed the following year. The 
train crews which carried the coal produced in the 
Beaver Meadow and Hazleton region to Packerton, the 
general forwarding point, made Weatherly their stop- 
ping place for many years. For a long time Samuel 
Harleman was the dispatcher who had them in charge, 
and be enjoyed equal popularity with Hoffecker and 
Rouse. 

Under the old regime of the Lehigh Valley, Weath- 
erly was contented and prosperous. Not only was there 
a great deal of new work turned out of the shops, but 
the location of the place made it an advantageous point 
for general repair work. The number of men em- 
ployed in the various shops of the company and on the 
railroad increased steadily until the early nineties, 
when the total numbered over a thousand. But Weath- 
erly was too much a town of one industry, and railroad 
towns are notoriously unstable. In 1894, as a result of 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 343 

a change in management, all of the work which had 
until then been done in the machine shops here was 
transferred to Delano. This proved quite a blow to the 
prosperity of the place. Five years later, in further- 
ance of the idea of concentration, the company closed 
all of its shops here, besides sending most of the train 
crews to other points. For a time but about twenty-five 
men in the town remained in the employ of the com- 
pany, and an air of depression and gloom pervaded the 
place. It was not long before a large proportion of the 
houses of the borough stood empty, their former occu- 
pants being scattered in all directions. But while the 
workmen found no difficulty in securing employment in 
other fields and localities, the case was different with 
the business men of the community. They could not 
leave without sacrificing their investments, and made 
the best of a trying situation. It is interesting to note 
that during the hard times which followed, there was 
not a single business failure in Weatherly, a favorable 
commentary on the resourcefulness and financial sol- 
vency of her merchants and men of affairs. These men 
set about courageously to secure new industries and to 
rehabilitate the town. The Weatherly Foundry and 
Machine Company, controlled almost exclusively by 
local capital, was soon organized, and its plant put in 
operation. Among the leading spirits in the launching 
of this enterprise were Elmer Warner, W. P. Long, J. 
C. Sendel, J. F. Kressley, E. F. Warner, Fred Berto- 
lette, and others. This industry grew rapidly, and is 
now one of the largest concerns of its kind in this por- 
tion of the state. It employs several hundred men, and 
its products go to all parts of the world. Elmer War- 
ner has been the chief stockholder and general manager 
of the company since its organization in 1899. About 
the time of the establishment of this industry, the Le- 



344 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

high Valley Railroad Company reopened its machine 
shops here, also establishing a frog department in 
another building which had been abandoned. The ma- 
chine shop was again closed in 1912. During 1899 the 
Allen Candy Manufacturing Company, which had been 
organized two years previously, removed its plant from 
Allentown to Weatherly. The output of this company 
has increased from year to year. About fifty people 
are employed, and the capital stock has been increased 
from $15,000 to $50,000. A. H. Horlacher has been the 
dominant figure in the affairs of the company since its 
incorporation. 

One of the industries which Weatherly had prior to 
the abandonment of its railroad shops was its silk mill, 
owned and operated by the Read and Lovatt Manufac- 
turing Company. This mill, which, at the time of its 
erection, was the largest silk-throwing concern in the 
world, was completed in the spring of 1888. Jerome C. 
Read and J. Walter Lovatt, both of Paterson, N. J., 
originally owned it in partnership. A large amount of 
local capital was, and still is, invested in the enterprise, 
however. It is still among the greatest of its kind in 
existence, having 50,000 spindles and employing about 
400 operatives. Most of these are boys and girls, and 
many have their homes in nearby towns. 

Another establishment here of a similar nature is 
that of the Roscoe Broad Silk Mill. This is a silk weav- 
ing mill, employing sixty operatives. The business was 
started by local capitalists in 1905, under the style and 
title of the Onoko Silk Manufacturing Company, and 
the property was leased to the first mentioned com- 
pany in 1910. 

Sand in large quantities is found on the eastern 
verge of the place, and the shipping of this natural pro- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 345 

duct to various points has grown to be quite a business 
in recent years. 

Weatlierly is one of the very few towns in Pennsyl- 
vania conducting a municipal lighting plant which gives 
satisfactory service and is financially successful. The 
streets and houses have been lighted by electricity since 
July, 1889. The original outlay for this service on the 
part of the borough was $16,000. This plant also fur- 
nishes electrical power to the town. 

A volunteer fire company was organized in 1893, 
with W. B. Lovatt as chief. The borough purchased a 
steamer, while a hook and ladder, together with other 
necessary equipment, was bought with funds secured 
through a fair held for that purpose. This company 
was disrupted, and ceased to exist on September 27, 
1897. A new company, known as Citizens' No. 1, was 
organized soon thereafter, J. C. Sendel being elected 
as its chief. E. F. Warner is the present head of the 
department. The membership is limited to sixty-five. 
The town hall, which is also the home of the fire depart- 
ment, was erected in 1893. 

Weatherly was without banking facilities until 1902, 
the First National Bank having been chartered on the 
28th of January of that year. Prior to this date the 
people of the borough depended on the banks of Hazle- 
ton and those of Mauch Chunk. The bank began busi- 
ness with a capital stock of $25,000, being first located 
in the Horlacher Building. So well did it prosper that 
on June 30, 1903, a dividend of five per cent, was paid 
to the share-holders. A handsome new building cost- 
ing $15,000 was erected by the bank on Carbon street in 
1907. An annual dividend of six per cent, is now regu- 
larly paid. On March 30, 1911, the capital stock of the 
institution was increased to $50,000. It has deposits 
approximating $300,000, while its surplus and undi- 



346 ) mSTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

vided profits amount to over $20,000. Elmer Warner 
has been president of the bank since its organization. 
Its first cashier was Ira W. Barnes, while C. F. Bretney 
is now serving in that capacity. 

The majority of the people in Weatherly own their 
own homes, and nearly two-thirds of the houses in the 
borough were wholly or partially built with funds ad- 
vanced by the Anthracite Building and Loan Associa- 
tion. This institution was organized in 1882. Its first 
president was A. J. Lauderburn. From the beginning 
this association has been one of the most carefully and 
economically managed of its kind, and it has grown in 
strength and in the confidence of the people from year 
to year. Its resources now amount to more than $200,- 
000. 

In 1841 the first schoolhouse was here erected, being 
located on the hill in the eastern portion of the town, 
near the site of the present building. This served the 
purpose for which it was intended imtil 1855, when it 
was replaced by a new structure two stories high, and 
about twenty-five by thirty feet in dimensions. This 
building cost $1,000. In 1869 it was torn down to make 
way for a building costing $6,000. In 1883 a frame 
building, which is still in use, was erected in West 
Weatherly at a cost of $5,500. The building in the east- 
ern portion of the borough, erected in 1869, and known 
as the high school building was in 1903 replaced by a 
magnificent pressed brick structure valued at $75,000, 
being the gift of Charles M. Schwab, the millionaire 
steel manufacturer. Mr. Schwab's princely gift came 
as a graceful tribute to his wife, who spent much of her 
girlhood in Weatherly. Her maiden name was Eurena 
Dinkey. The day of the dedication of this building, 
September 19, 1903, was the most notable one in the 
history of the borough. Thousands of visitors were in 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 347 

attendance from far and near and there was a street 
parade in which many visiting bands, drum corps, civic 
societies, and a company of regular soldiers, from Fort 
Hamilton, participated. Mr. Schwab, accompanied by 
his wife and other members of his family came from 
New York in a special train to witness the dedication 
exercises. Twelve teachers and a supervisory princi- 
pal are employed, while the high school course requires 
three years for completion. 

Weatherly is amply provided with hotels. The first 
license for a tavern in the place was that granted to 
Benjamin Romig in 1831. The next hotel to be opened 
was that of William Tubbs, which stood on the present 
site of the Gilbert House. The present hotel received 
its name from Charles Gilbert, who was the landlord 
from 1843 to 1848. In 1851 the Carbon House was 
opened by Joseph W. Leadenham. Lawrence Tarleton 
is the present owner. The Weatherly Hotel occupies 
the site where the Packer House stood for many years. 
The last named building was erected as a dwelling by 
Aaron Grimes in 1856. It came into the possession of 
Levi Hartz in 1868, and he conducted it as a hotel until 
his death, which occurred about 1890. The present 
building is owned by Henry Schaffer. The Verzi House 
was built by Joseph Verzi in 1882. Harry Gangwer is 
the present landlord and owner. Another hotel is that 
of Abraham Patterson. 

The first postmaster of Weatherly was R. D. Stiles, 
who was appointed in 1848. During the incumbency of 
Thomas Dunn, in 1903, the only rural route starting 
from this office was established. This route leads 
through Packer township. James M. Dreher is the 
present postmaster. 

The only newspaper purblished in the borough is the 
Herald, which was established by H. V. Morthimer in 



348 . HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

1880. It is issued weekly, and has been owned and 
edited by Percy E. Faust since 1886. 

A board of trade was organized in 1898, and this 
body has rendered valuable service to the community. 

The various fraternal and beneficial societies are 
well represented here. The Grand Army Post was 
named in honor of Colonel James Miller, and was or- 
ganized on August 11, 1882, with forty members. Not 
many of these remain. A soldiers' monument, which 
stands on the hill near the Schwab school building, was 
erected and dedicated in 1906. 

The borough obtains its water supply from the 
Weatherly Water Company, which was chartered Jan- 
uary 24th, 1882. The works were built the same year, 
and the source of supply at first was Shep's run. In 
1883 an additional supply was obtained from Penrose 
creek. The water works system now consists of stor- 
age and distributing reservoirs, gravity supply mains, 
and a high and low distributing system. Penrose creek, 
which rises in Banks township, is the principal source 
of supply. A storage reservoir having a capacity of 
3,000,000 gallons is situated on this stream. 

Church services were first held here by the Presby- 
terian denomination in the year 1838. Rev. Daniel Gas- 
ton, who resided at Beaver Meadow was the pastor. 
After 1841, services were usually held in the school 
house until 1852, when a church building was com- 
menced. The edifice was dedicated on the 9tli of Octo- 
ber, 1853. The adherents of the Methodist denomina- 
tion and of several others also worshipped in this build- 
ing. 

In 1866 the Methodists erected a building of their 
own. The father of this church was Rev. Emory T. 
Swartz, now of Scranton. It was named the Centenary 
Methodist Episcopal church, because the year of its 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 349 

erection was the centennial of Methodism in the United 
States. 

The corner stone of St. Nicholas' Eoman Catholic 
church was laid on October 25, 1874. The building was 
completed during the following year. Eev. E. V. Mc- 
Elhone was the first rector. This church was for many- 
years a mission of St. Mary's church at Beaver 
Meadow, as was St. Joseph's at Laurytown. In 1902, 
during the residence here of Rev. F. X. Wastl, St. Nich- 
olas' was organized as a separate parish. In 1907 the 
building was enlarged and remodeled. Various other 
improvements of a substantial nature were made dur- 
ing the pastorate of Rev. Wastl. 

Salem's Reformed church was the next to be built in 
the borough. The church edifice was erected in 1875, 
the first pastor being Rev. J. Fuendling. He was suc- 
ceeded by Rev. M. H. Mishler, who served about four 
years, when Rev. A. M. Masonheimer, the present pas- 
tor, was called. 

Zion's Evangelical Lutheran church was built in 
1876. There were but thirty members at the time of or- 
ganization, and for a time the church had no regular 
pastor. Its first regular pastor was Rev. Lewis Smith, 
who took charge on October 1st, 1883. Rev. W. Penn 
Barr accepted the pastorate of this congregation in 
1903. During the following year the church building 
was remodeled at a cost of $7,000. 

Christ Episcopal church had its beginnings during 
the eighties. Meetings were first conducted in Oak 
Hall, where the congregation and Sunday school was 
organized. Mrs. Emma J. Blakslee Pryor was one of 
the most influential persons in the establishment of this 
congregation. In 1888 the present church building was 
completed. 



350 I HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

Bethesda Evangelical church was erected in 1890 on 
land donated by Dr. J. B. Tweedle and Daniel Yeakel. 

The Holiness Christian Association gained a footing 
here in 1896, following a series of open air meetings. 
A house of worship was put up in the same year. 

One of Weatherly's institutions which is believed to 
be unique is the town cane, given as a badge of honor by 
the people of the borough to the oldest male resident of 
the community. This custom was established in 1907, 
and its originator was J. F. Kressley, a former chief 
burgess of the town. The present holder of the cane, 
and the first to whom the honor has come, is Lewis 
Flickinger, who was born in Mahoning township. Car- 
bon county, on December 3, 1818. It is provided that 
upon the death of the person entitled to possess the 
cane, it shall become the duty of the chief burgess pub- 
licly to present it to the oldest man remaining a resi- 
dent of the borough. The cane is of beautiful work- 
manship and bears an appropriate inscription. 

WEISSPOET BOBOUGH. 

While Weissport is one of the smaller boroughs of 
Carbon county, it nevertheless occupies a conspicuous 
position in the early history of this portion of the state. 
It is bounded on the north, east and south by Franklin 
township, to which it formerly belonged, and on the 
west by the Lehigh river. Like Lehighton, its sister 
borough on the opposite bank of the Lehigh, Weiss- 
port was first settled by the Moravian missionaries. A 
portion of the original tract of land purchased by the 
Moravians in 1745, and on which Gnadenhiitten mission 
was established, near the mouth of the Mahoning, in 
1746, extended across the river and embraced the north- 
ern part of the present site of Weissport. 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. ' 35I 

In 1754, the mission was removed from Gnadenhiit- 
ten to the spot where Weissport now stands, and the 
place became known as New Gnadenhiitten. While the 
principal settlement was now located on the eastern 
bank of the river, its parent on the Mahoning was not 
entirely deserted. 

But scarcely had the new community been ushered 
into being when those remaining at Gnadenhiittten were 
attacked by Indians and most of their number slain. 
This occurrence prompted the missionaries and their 
Mohegan and Delaware converts, numbering several 
hundred, to desert New Gnadenhiitten, and flee to Beth- 
lehem for safety. 

The Indian massacre took place on the evening of the 
24th of November, 1755 ; during the month of January, 
1756, Benjamin Franklin built Fort Allen, which stood 
on the present site of the hotel of that name. A short 
distance to the rear of the hotel may still be seen the 
well which was dug under Franklin's supervision. It 
was within the enclosure of the fort, and supplied the 
soldiers of the garrison with water. 

Having served the purpose for which it was erected. 
Fort Allen was evacuated in January, 1761, and it was 
not until nearly a quarter of a century afterwards that 
the permanent settlement of Weissport was begun. 
The place is named in honor of its founder. Colonel 
Jacob Weiss, a veteran of the Eevolutionary War, who 
was a native of Philadelphia. 

Colonel Weiss first visited the locality in 1784, and 
soon thereafter purchased seven hundred acres of land 
between what is now Parryville and Long Eun from the 
Moravians. The land was heavily timbered and his 
object in making the purchase was to engage in lumber- 
ing operations. He erected a log house for his own use 
on the identical site of Franklin's fort, besides building 



352 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

a saw mill and a house for the man whom he employed 
as his sawyer, John Roth. 

In 1785, Weiss brought his family, consisting of his 
wife, two children, and his mother-in-law, to the new 
home. At the time of his coming the Arners, Solts and 
Hoeths were already settled along the Poho Poco creek, 
several miles to the eastward, while the Dodsons and a 
few other families lived in the valley of the Mahoning, 
on the opposite side of the river. 

The land was soon denuded of its timber, and in a 
few years fields were cleared and planted. Colonel 
Weiss purchased other large tracts in the vicinity, and 
was engaged in lumbering on an extensive scale for 
many years. 

Farming proved rather an unprofitable occupation at 
first, however, because the soil was rough and barren, 
while frosts during the growing season, due in large 
measure to the moisture of the forests, were of com- 
mon occurrence. 

On the night of October 6, 1786, Colonel Weiss and 
his family narrowly escaped being drowned when the 
Lehigh suddenly and unexpectedly overflowed its 
banks, spreading all over the flats about the little set- 
tlement. Near the hour of midnight the family was 
aroused by the wailing cry, ''We are surrounded!" 
Years had gone by since last the region had been vis- 
ited by hostile Indians ; but the first thought suggested 
by this signal of distress was that a war party had 
fallen upon them, bent on murder and pillage. 

As soon as the true nature of the situation was un- 
derstood, hasty preparations were made to escape to 
the nearby hills. All of the family excepting Colonel 
Weiss and his wife were driven to a place of safety in 
a wagon. The Colonel made his escape on horseback, 
while his wife was borne to higher ground in an arm 
chair by some of the men of the settlement. 



HISTORY OF CABBON COUNTY. 353 

Near the river stood a house occupied by a man 
named Tippey, his wife and two children. They were 
less fortunate than their neighbors. Their dwelling 
was swept from its foundations by the fast-rising flood, 
and was carried away by the current. In this ex- 
tremity the parents clung protectingly to the children 
until the house struck a tree, about a mile down the 
river, when the little ones were washed to destruction. 
Tippey and his wife caught hold of the limbs of the 
tree and were rescued in a canoe by one of Colonel 
"Weiss' men, who had been a sailor. This event came 
to be known as '' Tippey 's Flood." 

About the year 1800, settlers began to pour into the 
region west of the Lehigh, and this gave rise to agita- 
tion for the construction of a bridge across the river 
at Weissport. The bridge was built by Northampton 
county, of which Carbon then formed a part, in 1805, 
the cost of the structure being about $3,000. Follow- 
ing its erection, the road leading from Bethlehem to 
Gnadenhiitten, which was built by the Moravians, more 
than fifty years before this time, was extended to 
Lausanne, at the mouth of the Nesquehoning creek, a 
short distance above the point where Mauch Chunk is 
now situated. In 1808 this road became a part of the 
Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike, connecting Berwick 
and Easton. The original bridge at Weissport was 
partially wrecked by the flood of 1841, but, after being 
repaired, stood until 1862, when it was entirely swept 
away. It was then rebuilt, and has since been main- 
tained by the county. 

In 1827, when the building of the Lehigh Canal was 
begun, there were but a few houses at Weiss' Mill, as 
the place was then designated. It was at first planned 
by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to locate 
the canal on the west side of the river ; Colonel Weiss, 



354 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. - 

however, offered the company a free right of way- 
through his lands on the opposite bank, and this re- 
sulted in the canal being built on the east side of the 
river. Weiss and his sons then made a town plot, pro- 
viding for lots, streets, and a public square. About 
forty lots were soon disposed of, being sold on the plan 
of a lottery for seventy-five dollars each. By this ar- 
rangement the holder of each ticket was entitled to a 
lot, the only uncertainty attending its purchase being 
with reference to its location. 

The public square, which to-day is one of the chief 
attractions of the place, was presented to the town by 
Colonel Weiss. The building of houses was begun in 
earnest with the completion of the canal through here 
in 1829. The tavern now known as the Weissport 
House was built in that year by Peter Snyder, and oc- 
cupied by Daniel Heberling, its first landlord. 

Weiss was now burdened with age and infirmities, 
and the active control of his affairs devolved upon his 
sons, Francis and Thomas. The former was a sur- 
veyor, doing most of the surveying in this region for 
many years. 

About 1832, Lewis Weiss, one of the sons of Thomas 
Weiss, began the building of boats along the canal for 
the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company and for the 
Morris Canal and Banking Company. In 1836 he 
opened the first store in Weissport, continuing the 
business for more than twenty years. Another store 
was opened by Daniel Heberling, about the center of 
the town, in 1838. He, too, remained in business for 
an extended period of time. One of the successful 
boat builders in the early history of the place was 
Andrew Graver, who came here from Lehighton in 
1836. He retired in 1877. Nathan Snyder opened a 
boat yard in 1846 which he conducted until 1872. The 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 355 

rolling mill established by Lewis Weiss in 1855 was one 
of the leading industries of the town for nearly thirty 
years. This plant, which had several times been en- 
larged, was last owned and operated by William Lilly 
and Company, being closed down in 1883. 

Weissport has witnessed the establishment of a num- 
ber of manufacturing enterprises which contributed 
greatly to the prosperity and up-building of the town, 
but which, for various reasons have ceased to exist. 
One of these enterprises was conducted by the Lehigh 
Valley Emery Wheel Company, which was organized 
in 1874 with a capital stock of thirty thousand dollars. 
The industry had flourished in a small way some years 
prior to the organization of the company. Among its 
leading spirits were William Lilly, who served as presi- 
dent of the company until his death, which occurred in 
1893; J. G. Zern, W. C. McCormick, L. E. Wills, W. R. 
Butler, and others. The operations of the company 
covered a period of about twenty-six years. 

The Fort Allen Foundry was established by William 
and C. D. Miner in 1874. It prospered for a time, but 
has now been closed for many years. 

About 1890 Fred Horlacher, Charles Wolters and 
others formed the Carbon County Improvement Com- 
pany, which conducted a planing mill, facing mill, an 
artificial ice plant, and an electric light plant, which 
furnished light for both Weissport and Lehighton. 
The company failed after a time, and the property 
passed to the control of a party of Mauch Chunk capi- 
talists, headed by James I. Blakslee. The flood of 
1901 destroyed the buildings of the company and they 
were not replaced. 

The silk-throwing mill which is now in operation 
here was established by A. L. Storms and William G. 
Miller. Miller has since withdrawn from the partner- 



356 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

ship, his interest having been purchased by Nathan 
Everett. This and the Eureka Manufacturing Com- 
pany, a furniture making concern controlled by J. W. 
Heller, represent the only industries now situated in 
the town. 

Many of Weissport's people are employed in the 
Packerton shops of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Com- 
pany ; a smaller number work for the Central Railroad 
Company of New Jersey, the line of which passes 
through the town. Others are employed in the boat 
yards of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, 
situated just across the canal in East Weissport ; some 
follow boating on the canal as an occupation, while a 
certain number earn the means of a livelihood in the 
zinc works at Hazard. 

Owing to its low situation, Weissport has suffered 
severely from the floods which at various times have 
destroyed life and property along the Lehigh river. 
The most disastrous of these floods were those of 1841, 
1862, and 1901. In the freshet of 1862 scarcely a house 
in the place escaped being damaged by the water. 
Eighty-nine buildings of all descriptions were then 
destroyed, while wrecks of bridges, broken canal boats, 
lumber, saw logs, and debris of every variety covered 
the site of the town. Four residents of Weissport 
were drowned in this flood. There were two floods in 
1901 — one during the latter part of August, and the 
other in December. Most of the place was submerged 
on both occasions, and heavy property losses were sus- 
tained. 

The postoffice here was established in 1850, Alex- 
ander Lentz being the first postmaster. Two rural 
mail routes having this office for their starting point, 
and running eastward through Franklin township 
toward the Monroe county line were instituted in 1903. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. i 357 

Weissport was incorporated as a borough on June 
3, 1867. The population of the place in 1870 was 359. 
Each decennial census since then has shown some 
growth, and in 1910 the number had risen to 638. In 
this connection it should be remembered, too, that the 
borough line extends only to the canal, much of the 
town lying east of this in "Franklin township. 

The first schoolhouse in Weissport was erected in 
1838, its cost being $400. It stood near the river, and 
was swept away by the flood of 1841. A small, one- 
story octagonal stone building was erected in its place. 
This structure is still standing upon its original site, 
being now used as the town lock-up. It was used for 
school purposes until 1865. The old church of the 
Evangelical Association was also utilized as a school 
house from 1853 to 1862, being destroyed by the flood 
of that year. The present building, accommodating all 
the schools of the borough, was built in 1865. 

Weissport to-day has two hotels. The first to be 
erected has already been mentioned as having been 
built by Peter Snyder, and occupied by Daniel Heber- 
ling, in 1829. It is now conducted by Robert Hongen, 
being known as the Weissport House. The meetings of 
town council are held here, the borough having no 
building of its own. 

The Fort Allen House was built in 1857 by Edward 
Weiss, son of Colonel Jacob Weiss. It occupies the site 
of the old log house which the colonel erected in 1785, 
and stands within the limits of the stockade for which 
it was named. 

One of the interesting buildings of Weissport is 
Jacob's Reformed church. Before the construction of 
this edifice, the only church building this congregation 
has ever owned, the Reformed and Lutheran people 
worshipped under the trees along the Lehigh river. 



358 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

This congregation is undoubtedly an outgrowth of the 
Gnadenhiitten mission, this fact having been attested 
to by early residents of the place. The church was 
built in co-operation by the Reformed and Lutheran 
denominations. The congregations were formally or- 
ganized under a tree, near the spot where the church 
now stands, on August 1, 1838, under the leadership of 
Rev. Cyrus Becker, representing the Reformed ele- 
ment, and Rev. F. W. Meendsen, an indefatigable 
worker in the cause of the Lutheran church throughout 
the Lehigh Valley. 

At this meeting Jacob Weiss (hence the name 
Jacob's) presented a lot on which to build the church. 
In addition to this he gave an acre of ground on the 
hill to the east of the canal for a burial ground. The 
Presbyterian denomination was also intended to share 
in the gift; but the adherents of that faith forfeited 
their rights by not taking part in the building of the 
church, which was completed and occupied on Christ- 
mas Day in 1839. The church was jointly owned until 
1893, when the Reformed people bought out the Lu- 
therans' interest for the sum of $1,300. In the same 
year the congregation began to remodel the building, 
which work was finished several years later. 

The church is one of the few buildings of Weissport 
which withstood the various floods that have wrought 
such havoc in the town. The building was not yet 
finished when, in January, 1839, Colonel Weiss died at 
the advanced age of nearly eighty-nine years. He was 
the first to be buried in the cemetery on the hill, where 
his remains repose. 

Ebenezer church of the Evangelical Association 
dates back to the year 1833, when the first services of 
this denomination were here conducted. The congre- 
gation was founded in 1835 by Rev. J. M. Saylor and 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. I 359 

Eev. Jacob Reigel. A church building was erected on 
the site of the present school house, and was occupied 
until 1853, when the present house of worship was 
begun. Under Rev. Moses Dissinger, in 1870, the 
church became a regular station ; up to this time it was 
either a mission or a part of a circuit. The congrega- 
tion was quite prosperous until the division in the As- 
sociation took place; a majority of its membership 
then left the mother church and built a new one a short 
distance across the canal in Franklin township. Since 
then the church has again been conducted as a mission. 

St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran church was built in 
1893, the corner stone having been laid on the 6th of 
August of that year. The early history of this congre- 
gation has already been given in connection with that 
of Jacob's Reformed church. 

Weissport is furnished with water by the Lehighton 
Water Supply Company, while the town is also electri- 
cally lighted by the plant of its sister borough. 

The Weissport National Bank, having a capital 
stock of $25,000, was opened for business on July 1, 
1912. 

Its president is Milton Snyder, while W. H. Straus- 
burger is the cashier of the institution. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



Biographical Sketches 

Bachman, Griffith H., a veteran of the Civil War, 
and a retired locomotive engineer, living at Weatherly, 
springs from one of Pennsylvania's oldest families. 
The first of his ancestors coming to America served as 
a secretary of William Penn, from whom he received 
for his services the two townships in Lehigh and North- 
ampton counties, now known as Upper and Lower Sau- 
con. 

He was the progenitor of the Bachman family as it 
is found in the Lehigh Valley to-day, and his de- 
scendants are scattered throughout many states of the 
Union. 

John Peter Bachman, the father of the subject of 
this notice, was born at Cherryville, Northampton 
county, Pa., in 1796. He was a shoemaker by trade 
and also tilled a small farm. His companion in life 
bore the maiden name of Mary Magdalene Fenster- 
macher, who was three years his junior. They became 
the parents of nine children, three of whom survive: 
James, of Eldora, Iowa; Daniel, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., 
and Griffith, of Weatherly. 

Griffith H. Bachman was born at Cherryville, the 
home of his ancestors for generations, on November 
21, 1834, growing to maturity at Parryville, Carbon 
county. 

In 1855 he came to Weatherly, entering the employ 
of the Beaver Meadow Railroad Company as a brake- 
man. He continued in this capacity until the breaking 
out of the Rebellion, when he enlisted in the army, be- 
ing enrolled as a member of Company G., Eighty-first 
Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. This 

363 



364 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

regiment, which was largely recruited from Carbon 
coimty, is rated as seventh among the celebrated 
' ' Fighting Regiments ' ' of the Union Army. Out of a 
total of thirteen hundred men and officers upon its 
honored rolls, it sustained over a thousand casulties. 
Mr. Bachman served through the Peninsular cam- 
paign, and was honorably discharged as a corporal on 
February 16, 1863, owing to disability. When Penn- 
sylvania was invaded, later in the same year, having 
recuperated, he re-enlisted, becoming a corporal in 
the Thirty-fourth Regiment. After a short term of 
service, he was again honorably discharged. 

Returning to civil life, he resumed railroading at 
Weatherly, and when the Beaver Meadow Railroad 
was absorbed by the Lehigh Valley, he was retained 
by the latter company. 

From 1865 to 1893 he was an engineer. In the lat- 
ter year he participated in a general strike as a mem- 
ber of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. La- 
ter he was dismissed from the service of the company, 
ostensibly because of his advanced age, but in reality, 
as he thinks, because of his prominence as a promoter 
of the strike. 

Since then he has lived in retirement in a pleasant 
home which he built in 1875. 

Mr. Bachman has served as a member of the council 
of the borough, and is a member of the Reformed 
church. 

He is a charter member of Colonel James Miller 
Post, Grand Army of the Republic, being also identified 
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while still 
retaining his membership in the Brotherhood of Loco- 
motive Engineers. 

On March 10, 1864, he was married to Mary E. 
Graver, of Weatherly. They became the parents of 





^:^,^'^^ 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 365 

two children, Hari-y E. and Ida J., the wife of John 
H. Daubert. Mrs. Bachman died March 7, 1872, and 
on April 3, 1873, he wedded Mrs. Lucy Greenewalt, nee 
Humm, of Bucks county. Pa,, whose first husband was 
also a veteran of the Rebellion. Her death occurred 
on October 3, 1911. 

Baer, Eugene W., one of the most conspicuous fig- 
ures in Carbon county 's business and industrial affairs, 
is the principal stockholder and president of the Baer 
Company, which operates a large silk mill at Lehigh- 
ton. 

He was born at Paterson, New Jersey, September 9, 
1868, his parents, Jacob F. and Louise (Blattner) 
Baer, being natives of Switzerland. 

Jacob F. Baer was born November 27, 1836, and was 
educated in the schools of his native country, learning 
the trade of a silkmaker under the direction of his 
father, John F. Baer. 

In 1856, being then twenty years of age, he emigrated 
to America, hoping to find in the new world better op- 
portunities for advancement and the achievement of 
success than the old afforded. He located in New 
York city, where for a short period he was engaged in 
the silk business, later taking up his permanent resi- 
dence at Paterson, New Jersey, where he prospered in 
his chosen field as a manufacturer of silk, having be- 
gun in a small way. 

He suffered heavy financial losses in the panic which 
followed the failure of Jay Cooke & Company in 1873, 
and was obliged by force of circumstances to discon- 
tinue operations. 

For several years subsequent to this period he 
served in managerial capacities in a number of large 
silk mills. The year 1888 found him again engaged in 
business on his own account, having established the 



366 i HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Helvetia Silk Mills, numbered to-day among the lead- 
ing industrial enterprises of Paterson. 

Jacob F. Baer was married in 1858, his children 
being as follows: Frederick A., Ealph, Eugene, Wil- 
liam A., Lewis C, Anna, Louise and Eose L. Baer. 

The father died on November 29, 1905. 

Eugene W. Baer is a product of the public schools, 
beginning his business career at the age of fourteen 
as an employe of J. Walder, a manufacturer of silk 
mill supplies, with whom he remained for two years. 
Subsequently he spent a year with the firm of Ulrich 
& Company, engaged in the same line of business, after 
which he served an apprenticeship of three and a half 
years with the Eastwood Company, builders of textile 
machinery. From 1888 until 1896 he was in the employ 
of his father in the Helvetia Mills in Paterson. It 
was during this period that Mr. Baer gained the prac- 
tical experience in the various departments of silk 
manufacture upon which his success has been built. 
The mechanical knowledge which he gained during the 
term of his apprenticeship here stood him in good 
stead, and being of an inventive turn of mind, he insti- 
tuted various new processes and devices. 

He had now come to the point at which every man of 
force and originality arrives sooner or later. Serving 
in a subordinate capacity was no longer congenial to 
him, and he yearned to employ his energies and abil- 
ities unhampered by the will of a superior. Accord- 
ingly he formed the firm of Eugene W. Baer & Com- 
pany, and set up a silk spinning manufactory at Eiver- 
side, one of the suburbs of Paterson. 

After the business had been well established, Mr. 
Baer admitted his father to partnership with himself, 
and in 1898 the plant was removed to Lehighton, where 
large and modern buildings had been specially erected. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 357 

This industry now gives employment to more people 
than any other in Lehighton. 

In 1903 Mr. Baer purchased his father's interest in 
the business and the concern was incorporated under 
the style and title of The Baer Company, the heads of 
the various departments in the mill being permitted to 
become stockholders, while Mr. Baer assumed the 
presidency of the company. In 1907 a branch mill was 
erected at Berwick, Pa., and this has a capacity not 
much less than the mill at Lehighton. 

Mr. Baer is also a partner and stockholder in the 
Helvetia Silk Mills, and is a member of the board of 
directors. He was chiefly instrumental in the organi- 
zation of the Citizens ' National Bank of Lehighton, of 
which institution he was president for several years. 
He resigned from this position June 23, 1910. 

In December, 1889, Mr. Baer was united in marriage 
to Miss Cora B. Tice, daughter of David and Elizabeth 
Tice. Their children are : Cora E., Genevieve R., Rose 
L. and Eugene W., twins; Carlos A. and Margie E. 
Baer. All were born in Paterson excepting Margie, 
who claims Lehighton as the place of her nativity. 
Cora and Genevieve are now enrolled as students at the 
National Park Seminary, a select school for young 
women, at Washington, D. C. 

Mr. Baer is an activ6 member and liberal supporter 
of the Presbyterian church. 

Balliet, Dr. Calvin J., a Lehighton physician and 
surgeon, is the son of Nathan and Sarah (Meinhard) 
Balliet. He is one of the numerous descendants of 
Paulus Balliet, a native of Alsace, Germany, who was 
born in the year 1717. Emigrating to America on the 
ship ''Robert Oliver," Walter Goodman commanding, 
he landed on September 10, 1738, becoming one of the 
pioneer settlers of North Whitehall township, Lehigh 



368 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

county. He was a large landowner, and was a well- 
known inn keeper, being commonly referred to as 
''Bowl" Balliet, a name which, according to tradi- 
tion, was conferred upon him by the Indians, to whom 
he was accustomed to furnish refreshments from a 
wooden bowl. 

Calvin J. Balliet was born in Mahoning township on 
January 11, 1875. His early training was received in 
the common schools of that district, and at the Normal 
Institute. Later he attended Palatinate College, Mey- 
er stown. Pa., and the Polytechnic Institute, of Balti- 
more. Entering Jefferson Medical College, he was 
graduated with the class of 1897, after which he took a 
post-graduate course at the Polyclinic Hospital, Phila- 
delphia. 

In the fall of 1897 he located in Lehighton, where he 
has since practiced his profession, having built up a 
good practice among the friends and associates of his 
lifetime. He holds membership in the Carbon County 
Medical Society, the Pennsylvania Medical Society, the 
Lehigh Valley Medical Society and the American Med- 
ical Association. 

Dr. Balliet was married in 1898 to Meta, daughter of 
Dennis Nothstein, of Mahoning township. They are 
the parents of six sons : Herman, Henry, Calvin, Jos- 
eph, Robert and Thomas. 

Balliet, Lewis F., a justice of the peace at Bowmans- 
town, is a member of that numerous tribe, now scatter- 
ed throughout many lands, who trace their lineage 
back to the chevalier and noble French race of the 
Balyards, which is already found at the time of the 
French King Clodwig. 

At about the year 500 the forefather of this family 
was commander of the armies of King Clodwig. His 
name was Tancred Le Balyard, which in the old French 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 359 

language signified ''a warrior with many scars," as 
Tancred at his death, in the year 524, counted more 
than one hundred scars on his body. 

He left two sons, Hugo and Alfred. Hugo entered 
the clerical career and died as Archbishop of Mailance. 
But Alfred settled, after many warfares, in Nor- 
mandy. He adopted in his coat of arms the head of a 
man, round which was tied a bandage, as a sign of the 
many wounds of his father; on top of the helmet he 
carried a rooster, which signified the love for battle 
and the warrior's valor. These arms his descendants 
also adopted and maintained, and from thence it has 
become the coat of arms of the family. 

Alfred had two sons, Franz and Raynold. Their de- 
scendants yet flourished in great numbers about the 
year 1066. But then most of the race went over to 
England with the Norman Duke, William, settling in 
the County Sussex. Their descendants are flourishing 
to-day in England, Scotland and Belgium. 

Only a certain Gaulther Balyard remained in France. 
He was a valiant warrior, and died in the year 1099 at 
the storming of Jerusalem in the first holy war. His 
descendants were highly esteemed as warriors and as 
statesmen, but squandered very much of their sub- 
stance during the civil and religious wars of France. 
One line of this family emigrated to Germany, living in 
the province of Alsace on the Rhine. Paulus Balliet, 
pioneer of the family in America, was born in Ger- 
many, of Huguenot parentage, 1717. At the age of 21 
he was compelled to seek refuge, with many other 
French Protestants, in foreign countries on account of 
the religious persecution to which the Huguenots were 
subjected after the revocation of the famous edict of 
Nantes by King Louis XIV. He embarked for America 
on board the ship ' ' Robert Oliver, ' ' Sept. 10, 1738, and 



370 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

located in what is now called Whitehall township, Le- 
high county. There he became a large landholder, own- 
ing the ground on which Coplay, Whitehall and Bal- 
lietsville now stand. He died March 19, 1777. He had 
five sons and four daughters. One of these sons, Ste- 
phen Balliet, was born in 1753. He engaged in the mer- 
cantile business at the old stand of his father in White- 
hall township. Taking an active part in politics he 
became a member of the state legislature in 1789. He 
was also a revenue collector of the United States gov- 
ernment. Tradition has it that he took part in the 
battle of Brandywine under Washington. Papers are 
still in existence bearing the title of colonel prefixed to 
his name. He was married to Magdalena Burkhalter, 
with whom he had two sons, named Stephen and Jo- 
seph. His death occurred Aug. 4, 1821. Stephen Balliet 
was born Oct. 27, 1781, and lived till late in life in 
Whitehall township, when he came to East Penn, Car- 
bon county, where he died in 1854, at the age of 72 
years, leaving seven sons and four daughters. 

John Balliet, one of these sons, and the father of 
Lewis F. Balliet, was born Nov. 13, 1819, at Whitehall, 
Lehigh county, coming to Carbon county with the fam- 
ily of his father. He married Amanda Rahrig, with 
whom he had eleven children; three sons and two 
daughters survive: John of Reading, Harry of Slate- 
dale, Lehigh county; Lewis of Bowmanstown, Emma, 
wife of John Semmel, of East Penn township, and 
Martha, wife of James Neyer, of Slatington. 

John Balliet was an extensive real estate holder and 
was the owner of Balliet 's charcoal furnace at Ash- 
field. He conducted the first store in Bowmanstown, 
was the owner of the Bowmanstown Hotel and was in- 
terested in various business and industrial enterprises 
in the Lehigh Valley. He died Jan. 5, 1886. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 371 

Lewis F. Balliet was born in East Penn township, 
Nov. 4, 1863. Having received a common school edu- 
cation, he also attended Kingston Seminary, finishing 
his education at Tremont Seminary, Norristown, Pa. 
During the lifetime of his father he assisted him in 
the conduct of his manifold enterprises. For a period 
of years Mr. Balliet conducted a farm in East Penn 
township, being also engaged in the lumber business. 
He held the office of school director in Lower Towa- 
mensing township for a number of terms, while he has 
been a justice of the peace since 1900. He is a Repub- 
lican and has played an influential part in county pol- 
itics. 

Mr. Balliet was wedded, in 1881, to Henrietta, daugh- 
ter of Josiah Bowman, of Bowmanstown. The pair 
have had eight children, six of whom are now living. 
Their names follow: Benjamin, Harvey, Raymond, 
William, Flossie and Anna. Flossie is the wife of 
Milton Sherer, of Bowmanstown. 

Balliet, Nathan M., the senior member of the law 
firm of Balliet & Seidel, of Lehighton, is a representa- 
tive of one of Carbon county's foremost professional 
families. 

Balliet is a name that has been prominent in eastern 
Pennsylvania since Colonial times. Joseph Balliet, 
the grandfather of N. M. Balliet, was a farmer in that 
portion of the Mahoning Valley which was formerly 
embraced in the territory of Northampton county, but 
which in 1811 became a part of Schuylkill county. The 
father of N. M. Balliet also bore the name of Nathan, 
and he was born in West Penn township, Schuylkill 
county. He was a farmer by occupation. In early life 
he was married to Sarah Meinhard, who was born at 
Nesquehoning, but spent her girlhood in the Mahoning 
Valley. 



372 ; HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Their children were : Thomas M., Francis S., Tilgh- 
man M., Nathan M., Andrew J., David M., Calvin J., 
Susan, Mary, Hannah, Emma and Amanda. 

Thomas was for six years the superintendent of 
schools for Carbon county. Later he was superintend- 
ent of the schools of Springfield, Massachusetts, while 
he is now the dean of the school of pedagogy of the 
University of New York. He bears a national reputa- 
tion as an educator. Francis is a farmer, and lives on 
the old homestead. Tilghman is a practising physician 
in Philadelphia ; he also holds the chair of theraputics 
at Dartmouth Medical College. Andrew is an attorney 
at Seattle, Washington, and for a time he held a judi- 
cial position under the federal government in Alaska. 
David is a traveling salesman, living at Meyerstown, 
Pennsylvania. Calvin is a physician at Lehighton, 
while Susan is the wife of Edwin Hunsinger, of the 
same place. Mary, Hannah, and Emma remain at 
home; Amanda is married to Daniel W. Sittler, Esq., 
of Mauch Chunk. The father of this family died in 
1896. 

N. M. Balliet was born in Mahoning township, Car- 
bon county, on October 19, 1861. He acquired his 
early education in the public schools and at the Nor- 
mal Institute, located in his native township and 
founded by his brother. Prof. Thomas M. Balliet. He 
attended Kutztown State Normal School, and later 
studied at Franklin and Marshall College, from which 
he graduated with the class of 1886. Mr. Balliet taught 
in the public schools for a few years, after which he 
became an instructor in Greek and Latin at Palatinate 
College. Accepting a professorship at Ursinus Col- 
lege, he taught Latin and Roman literature there for 
two years, during which time he was also president of 
the summer school of languages at the same college. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 373 

Forsaking the profession of teaching, he entered the 
New York Law School, from which he was graduated 
in 1895. Being admitted to practise in the courts of 
the state of New York, he maintained an office in New 
York city for a brief period. 

In the fall of 1895 Mr. Balliet was admitted to the 
Carbon county bar, succeeding to the practise of the 
late Senator William M. Rapsher, and opening an of- 
fice in Lehighton. In 1896 he formed a partnership 
with his brother-in-law, Ira E. Seidel, imder the firm 
name of Balliet & Seidel, and in addition to the office 
in Lehighton, they maintain a branch at Palmerton. 

Mr. Balliet is a member of the board of education of 
Lehighton, while he is connected fraternally with the 
Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 
He is a member of the board of trustees of the Allen- 
town College for Women, and of the Publication Board 
of the Reformed Church of the United States. 

N. M. Balliet was married to Emma L., daughter of 
Hon. Charles H. Seidel and his wife Kate, of Ma- 
honing township, on August 6, 1891. Their children 
are: Charles M., Paul, Nevin, and Katie S. Balliet. 

Barr, Rev. W. Penn, A.M., pastor of Zion's Evan- 
gelical Lutheran church at Weatherly, was born at 
Mauch Chunk, February 16, 1867. He is a grandson of 
John Barr, who was a prominent business man of 
Berks county. His father was Francis A. Barr, a 
merchant tailor, also born in Berks county ; his mother 
bore the maiden name of Lizzie A. Helffrich, a native 
of Lehigh county. 

William Penn Barr is one of a family of ten chil- 
dren ; when he was four years old his parents removed 
to Lyons, Berks county, where he received his early 
education. Later he accompanied the family of his 
father to the state of Delaware, and after a residence 



374 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

of five years they established their home at Elizabeth- 
ville, Dauphin county, Pa. Following the trade of his 
father, Mr. Barr was for a number of years a merchant 
tailor, and then a bookkeeper. Entering Muhlenberg 
College, he graduated in 1896 with the degree of A.B. 
Three years later he graduated from the Lutheran 
Theological Seminary at Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, and 
was honored with the degree of A.M. by Muhlenberg 
College. Immediately upon his graduation he accepted 
a call from Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, of 
Mt. Joy, Pa. After serving this congregation for four 
years, he assumed the duties of his present pastorate 
at Weatherly, July 1, 1903. This charge also includes 
a preaching point at Lowrytown and St. Matthew's 
church in Packer township ; he preaches at each on al- 
ternate Sundays in the afternoon. Under Rev. Barr's 
pastorate the church at Weatherly was enlarged and 
rebuilt at an outlay of seven thousand dollars. The 
church in Packer township was also remodeled and 
greatly improved. The debt so incurred has been liqui- 
dated in full, while much of the good showing that has 
been made by the congregations which he serves is 
due to his qualities of leadership. 

Eev. Barr was first married to Miss Laura M. Swab, 
of Elizabethville, Dauj^hin county, March 25, 1890, 
several years before he began his career as a student. 
She died on September 29, 1906, having borne him 
three children: Bernice E., Margaret V., and Francis 
A. Barr. Bernice was until recently located at Ches- 
ter, S. C, where she presided over the organ of the 
Presbyterian church. 

Mr. Barr was re-married to Mary A. Koch, of 
Weatherly, October 25, 1907. She is a daughter of 
Hugh Koch and his wife Fietta, of McKeansburg, 
Schuylkill county. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 375 

Bauman, Dennis, an honored representative of one 
of Carbon county's pioneer families, now living in re- 
tirement at Alientown, was born at Bowmanstown, 
then a part of Northampton county, on April 10, 1819. 
The pioneer of his family in America was John Deter 
Bauman, who is known to have purchased land near 
the mouth of Lizard creek, in what is now East Penn 
township, Carbon county, in the year 1760. He was 
one of the first settlers of Northampton county north 
of the Blue mountains. Not only did he become an 
extensive land owner in this portion of the county, but 
he was also a successful hunter and trapper, as were 
his descendants for several generations. He was the 
father of four children: Bernhard, Henry, Mary, and 
Sabilla. 

Henry settled near the point where St. John's 
church now stands in Lower Towamensing township, 
and about two miles north of Lehigh Gap, following 
farming and lumbering. His family consisted of two 
sons and two daughters. Occasionally the family was 
threatened by the Indians, and in one instance the 
head of the household sent his wife and children to a 
place near Easton for safety, while he remained alone 
in the wilderness. 

The elder son, John D., the father of Dennis Bau- 
man, was born about the year 1772. In 1796 he settled 
where Bowmanstown now stands, erecting a dwelling 
of logs. He became a farmer and lumberman, and, 
like his predecessors, he spent much time in hunting 
and trapping. In 1808 he built a large and substantial 
stone house, and obtaining a license he conducted it as 
a hotel until the year 1853, the time of his death. The 
house was on the line of the old turnpike leading from 
Berwick to Easton, and was a stopping place for trav- 
elers on that highway. 



376 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Mr. Bauman served as a commissioner of Carbon 
county for the term of three years. He was the father 
of twelve children and was respected and loved by all 
who knew him. His brother, Henry, settled on a farm 
a short distance north of Lehigh Gap, on the east bank 
of the river, where he spent his entire life. He, too, 
reared a large family, and died at the advanced age of 
ninety-two years. 

Dennis Bauman in early life assisted his father in 
his farming and lumbering operations, receiving the 
educational equipment then afforded by the district 
schools, and later pursuing a course of study at a 
boarding school in Bucks county, where he was in at- 
tendance for two successive winters. Mastering the 
art of a surveyor, he followed this as his principal 
occupation for nine years, being appointed also as 
deputy surveyor of Carbon county by Governor Shunk. 
In 1849 he was elected to the office of prothonotary, 
while three years later his conduct of the affairs of the 
office was given the stamp of public approval in his 
unanimous re-election. He was next chosen as one of 
the associate judges of the county, serving in that ca- 
pacity for five years. 

About the year 1855 he became a member of the firm 
of Bauman Brothers and Company, which established 
and operated an anthracite blast furnace at Parrjrvrille. 
Upon the dissolution of this co-partnership, of which 
Mr. Bauman was the acting financial member, in 1857, 
the Carbon Iron Company was organized and incor- 
porated. He was chosen as its president, and was regu- 
larly re-elected from year to year until 1876. The 
great panic which was then in progress closed down 
most of the iron manufacturing establishments of the 
Lehigh Valley, and the plant at Parryville proved no 
exception, the property passing to the Carbon Iron and 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 377 

Pipe Company. After this Mr. Bauman spent most 
of his time in looking after his private interests. 

He was one of the founders of the Carbon Metallic 
Paint Company, which was organized about 1867, serv- 
ing as a member of its board of directors until 1902, 
and being the secretary and treasurer of the company 
during most of that time. He was also one of the or- 
ganizers of the First National Bank of Lehighton, in 
1875, being a member of its board of directors for 
more than a quarter of a century, and for a time its 
vice-president. 

When Parryville was incorporated as a borough, in 
1875, Mr. Bauman was honored in being chosen as the 
first chief burgess of the town, which position he held 
for several terms, finally declining further re-election, 
but serving as a member of the borough council for 
years thereafter. He became a member of the Mauch 
Chunk lodge of Odd Fellows in 1849, still retaining his 
membership, and never having joined any other lodge 
or club. His partner in life was Mary, daughter of 
Henry Kress, of Northampton county. Four sons and 
a daughter were born to them. The wife and mother 
died on March 7, 1904, and in the fall of that year Mr. 
Bauman took up his residence with a daughter at Al- 
lentown, where he has since remained. He has been an 
earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
and a loyal Sunday school supporter since 1858, having 
filled many offices of honor and trust in these societies. 
He is indeed a grand old man in the full sense of the 
term, looking back from the eminence of years with 
patriarchal serenity upon his long life of probity and 
usefulness. 

Berger, Adam, a hotel keeper of East Penn town- 
ship, and a former member of the board of county 
auditors, is the son of George and Kate (Kemmerer) 



378 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Berger. His father was a native of Berks County. 
Establishing himself in the mercantile business at Ma- 
hanoy City, he remained there for a few years. Later 
he followed the occupation of a farmer in Mahoning 
and East Penn townships. 

Adam Berger was born in Berks county on November 
12, 1861. His early life was spent beneath the paternal 
roof, while his educational advantages were those sup- 
plied by the public schools. Reaching man's estate, he 
engaged in farming in Mahoning township, later pur- 
suing t"he same occupation in East Penn. In 1892 he 
entered the hotel business in the latter township, where 
he has since lived, excepting a residence of a few years 
in Lehighton. He served one term as tax collector of 
East Penn township, and is now a member of the 
school board of that district. 

In 1902, as the nominee of the Democratic party, he 
was elected to the office of county auditor, which he 
held for three years. 

At the age of twenty he was married to Priscilla, 
daughter of Joseph Ruch, of East Penn township. 
Their children are : George V., Emma S., wife of Ed- 
ward Exner, and Stanley J. Berger. 

Mr. Berger is identified with the Patriotic Order of 
Sons of America, the Junior Order of United Amer- 
ican Mechanics, and the Order of Independent Ameri- 
cans. 

Bevan, James J., who has been superintendent of 
schools for Carbon county since 1902, is of Welsh 
parentage, his father, William E. Bevan, having been 
born in Glamorganshire, Wales, in 1829. At the age 
of 21 he was united in marriage to Ann Jenkins, at 
Merthyr Tidvil. Shortly after their marriage the 
young couple emigrated to the United States, settling 
near Pottsville, Schuylkill county, Pa., where Mr. 





d^^/^^c^/ 



/• 



/^. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 379 

Bevan became a coal miner. After a short residence 
there, the family removed to Tresckow, Carbon county, 
where the father became an influential member of the 
community and a prominent factor in Banks township 
politics. In 1873 he was elected to the office of county 
treasurer. He died in 1884. 

James J. Bevan was born at Tresckow, January 31, 
1861. At the age of fifteen he accompanied his fa- 
ther's family to Alabama, where the elder Bevan held 
an executive position about a soft coal mine. During 
his stay in the south, James was a student at the 
Shelby Collegiate Institute, located near Birmingham. 
Returning to the north in 1881, he was for a short time 
employed as a hoisting engineer at the mines near 
Tresckow. He then entered West Chester State Nor- 
mal School, where he pursued a scientific course. Two 
years after his graduation, this institution conferred 
the degree of M.S. upon him. 

During 1882 and 1883, Mr. Bevan occupied the posi- 
tion of principal of the public schools of Leviston, 
Banks township, while in 1885 he was elected to the 
principalship of the schools of Mauch Chunk, in which 
capacity he served until called to the superintendency 
of the schools of the county, in 1902. 

That he has filled this responsible position accept- 
ably and well is attested by the fact that he is now 
serving his fourth term, having been thrice re-elected 
with scarcely any opposition. During his incumbency 
he has had an eye single to the advancement of the 
cause of education throughout the county, and he has 
labored with especial diligence for the uplift of the 
rural schools. He proceeds on the assumption that 
the schools in towns and boroughs under his jurisdic- 
tion, being governed by the principal in charge, do not 
stand as much in need of supervision and encourage- 



380 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

ment, perhaps, as do the rural schools, often officered 
by recruits in the educational ranks, who are com- 
pelled to overcome the obstacles and difficulties that 
confront them as best they may, without the guiding 
care and supervision of a principal. 

Largely through his influence, agriculture is now 
being taught in most of the schools of the rural dis- 
tricts of the county, giving those in attendance a better 
understanding of their environment and opportunities, 
and tending toward the solution of the problem which 
is presented by overcrowding in cities and the conse- 
quent increase in the cost of living. He also lays spe- 
cial stress on the importance of thorough training in 
English, holding that the highest accomplishment a 
boy or girl can have is to know well the mother tongue. 

Mr. Bevan is now the president of the Association of 
County Superintendents of Pennsylvania, and has for 
years taken an active interest in the work of the State 
Educational Association. 

He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, and is a communicant of the Presbyterian 
church. 

In 1889 he was married to Francesca L., daughter of 
Eeuben Cole, of Northampton county. Mary F. Bevan, 
a graduate of Bloomsburg State Normal School, is 
their only child. 

Bittner, John C, a retired farmer of Packer town- 
ship, and a veteran of the Civil War, is the son of 
Martin and Eva (Crat) Bittner, both natives of Ger- 
many. The family emigrated to this country about 
1830, settling in Columbia county. Pa. The father 
was a carpenter. Removing to Cressona, Schuylkill 
county, the parents both died there. 

John C. Bittner was born in Columbia county on 
February 24, 1836. He was about eight years of age 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 381 

when the death of his father occurred, and he grew 
to maturity on a farm near Orwigsburg, Schuylkill 
county. Learning the carpenter trade, he pursued his 
vocation until 1864. During March of that year he en- 
listed in Company I, One hundred and eighty-seventh 
Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, attached 
to the Army of the Potomac. He participated in all 
the engagements and maneuvers of his regiment from 
this time forth, including the battle of Cold Harbor, 
the siege of Petersburg, and the fighting about the 
Weldon Railroad, to the fall of Richmond and the close 
of the war. 

Returning to civil life he came to Quakake Valley 
and purchased from John Faust, his father-in-law, the 
old grist mill now owned by William S. Dietrich, con- 
ducting the same until 1869, when he disposed of the 
mill to Henry Gerhard. 

Mr. Bittner then devoted himself to agricultural pur- 
suits, acquiring title to the farm on which his father- 
in-law had settled when he came to Quakake Valley in 
1829. He is still the owner of this farm, which is one 
of the most desirable in the district. 

On April 7, 1860, he was married to Caroline Faust, 
and they became the parents of the following children : 
Charles, deceased; William H., owning a ranch near 
Louisville, Col. ; Allen D., living on the old homestead 
and conducting the farm ; Mary, the wife of Joel Lein- 
inger, of Packer township; Elvin D., a railway mail 
clerk, located at Harrisburg, Pa.; Ida, the wife of 
Samuel Behler, of Nuremberg, Schuylkill county; 
Clara E. and Jere, deceased ; Edgar, a mechanical en- 
gineer in the service of the New Jersey Foundry and 
Machine Company, of New York; George, deceased; 
Agnes, who married Allen Gerhard; Milton, a sten- 
ographer, of Idaho Springs, Col. ; Arthur, operating a 



382 ' HISTOEY OF CAKBON COUNTY. 

farm in Packer township; Jennie, wife of Wallace 0. 
Gerhard, and Laura, who wedded Truman Musselman. 

William, Allen, Elvin, Jere, Edgar and Milton were 
all educated at the Valparaiso Normal School, now 
known as Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, 
and became school teachers. All of these, excepting 
Jere, who died at the age of twenty-two, married school 
teachers. 

Jennie attended the Polytechnic Institute, of Gil- 
berts, Monroe county, Pa. She taught school for sev- 
eral years, and the man whom she married had been a 
school teacher. 

Mr. Bittner and his family have been among the 
leading spirits of St. Matthew 's Lutheran and Reform- 
ed church, and the Sunday school connected therewith, 
situated on ground originally belonging to the old 
homestead, while being otherwise influential in the 
community. During his long residence in Packer town- 
ship, Mr. Bittner successively filled most of the offices 
in the gift of the people of that district. 

Blakslee, Hon. James I., formerly a member of the 
legislature, now secretary of the Democratic state 
committee, and operating the municipal electric light 
plant of Lehighton, is of Scotch antecedents, and the 
family from which he springs has been identified with 
the interests and activities of Pennsylvania since early 
in the eighteenth century. 

Zopher Blakslee, his great grandfather, was a native 
of Vermont, but spent the major portion of his life in 
Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. He was a farmer 
by occupation. 

One of the ten children of Zopher Blakslee, James I. 
Blakslee was born in Susquehanna county, Pennsyl- 
vania, February 10, 1815. About 1833 he removed to 
Mauch Chunk with his brother-in-law, Asa Packer, and 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 3g3 

for a time was a boatman on the Lehigh Canal. In 
1839 he engaged in the mining and shipping of coal in 
Schuylkill county. Eeturning to Mauch Chunk after 
an absence of five years, he engaged in the preparation 
and shipping of coal from the Nesquehoning mines, 
worked under contract with the Lehigh Coal and Nav- 
igation Company by Messrs. Mapes, Packer & Harlan. 

Mr. Blakslee assisted in the building of the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad and was the conductor of the first coal 
train that ran over the road. In 1863 he was appointed 
superintendent of the Mahanoy division of this rail- 
road, which position he relinquished to superintend the 
construction of the Montrose Railroad in northeastern 
Pennsylvania. He was elected president of this rail- 
road in 1871. In 1878 he was elected a director of the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad, and for a time was a member 
of the executive committee of the board. 

Mr. Blakslee was a trustee of Lehigh University, in 
which position he ably seconded the plans of its foun- 
der, Asa Packer. 

As the candidate of the Democratic party, he was 
elected to the office of treasurer of Carbon county in 
1851. He was married in 1838 to Caroline Ashley, a 
native of Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. Their 
children were: Eugene H., Alonzo P., Asa P., and 
Charles A. Blakslee. 

James I. Blakslee, the father of this family, died in 
1901. 

Alonzo P. Blakslee received his early education in 
the schools of Mauch Chunk and Bethlehem. Subse- 
quently he was a student in the military academy at 
Eagleswood, New Jersey. In 1866 he entered the em- 
ploy of the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad, which soon 
thereafter was absorbed by the Lehigh Valley system. 
He remained with the company as the superintendent 



384 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

of the Mahanoy division until 1898, when he resigned 
to become the general manager of the famous Switch- 
back Railroad, taking up his residence at Mauch 
Chunk, where he also engaged in other enterprises. 

Alonzo P. Blakslee was united in wedlock in 1869 to 
Elizabeth Bond. Four children were born to them, 
James I. and Annie K. Blakslee alone surviving. The 
father died in 1911. 

James I. Blakslee was born at Mauch Chunk on De- 
cember 17, 1870. During his first year the family re- 
moved to Delano, Schuylkill county, where James at- 
tended the public schools. Subsequently he was a stu- 
dent at the Bethlehem Preparatory School and at the 
Cheltham Military Academy, finishing his education 
at the Hill School, Pottstown, Pennsylvania. 

Upon leaving school, Mr. Blakslee became a clerk in 
the office of the division superintendent of the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad at Delano. Later he became a tele- 
graph operator, and was the station agent for that 
company at Delano. Entering the service of the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad at Philadelphia, he soon returned to 
Delano to become the yardmaster of the Lehigh Valley 
Railroad at that place. 

Having previously been commissioned as a second 
lieutenant in Company E, Eighth Regiment, National 
Guard of Pennsylvania, Mr. Blakslee volunteered in 
that capacity for the war with Spain. During the prog- 
ress of the war, he was transferred to the regular army 
as quartermaster and commissary of the reserve hos- 
pital company, attached to the Second Army Corps. 
The command to which he belonged was successively 
stationed at Falls Church and Dunloring, Virginia; 
Middletown, Pennsylvania, and at Augusta, Georgia. 
He was mustered out on May 12, 1899. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 385 

Eeturning to civil life, Mr. Blakslee took up his resi- 
dence at Mauch Chunk, and purchased the property of 
the Carbon County Improvement Company at Weiss- 
port, consisting of various interests and industries. 
The plant was partially destroyed by fire soon there- 
after. It had scarcely been rebuilt when it was again 
destroyed by the destructive flood of 1901. Mr. Blak- 
slee then abandoned the property, and secured a lease 
on me electric light plant of the borough of Lehighton, 
which he is still conducting, furnishing light and power 
to both Lehighton and Weissport. 

He made his first excursion into the field of politics 
at Delano, in 1897, when he was chosen as a delegate 
to the Schuylkill county Democratic convention, held 
at Pottsville. He received 109 votes out of 110 votes 
cast, and had the honor of nominating 0. P. Bechtel 
for his last term as president judge of the Schuylkill 
county courts. He was for some years a member of 
the Schuylkill county Democratic executive committee, 
and was repeatedly urged to accept the nomination for 
state senator in his district, but declined. 

Mr. Blakslee was elected chairman of the Carbon 
county Democratic committee in 1905, and is still so 
serving. He was elected to the legislature in 1906, 
receiving 925 out of 1,030 votes cast in Lehighton, his 
home town. As a member of the legislature he played 
an active part in all the important measures before the 
House, acquitting himself with credit and ability. He 
was a member of the Democratic state executive com- 
mittee for a number of years, and in 1910 was the can- 
didate of his party for the office of secretary of inter- 
nal affairs, but was defeated with the rest of the ticket. 

Together with George W. Guthrie, Vance McCor- 
mick, A. Mitchell Palmer, and others, he took a promi- 
nent part in reorganizing the Democratic party in 



386 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Pennsylvania after the gubernatorial election of 1910, 
when he was chosen as the secretary of the state com- 
mittee. Much of his time and energy has since been 
devoted to the work of this position. He was a delegate 
to the Democratic national convention at Baltimore, 
which nominated Woodrow Wilson for the presidency. 

Mr. Blakslee has for years taken an active interest 
in the work of the Episcopal church, of which he is a 
member. He has been connected with All Saints 
church at Lehighton since its organization in 1902. 

During this time he has also been the superintendent 
of the Sunday school of this association. He is now a 
member of the Sunday school commission of the dio- 
cese of Bethlehem. 

In 1901 Mr. Blakslee was married to Henrietta W. 
Bunting, daughter of the late Doctor Thomas C. Bunt- 
ing and his wife Lizzie, of East Mauch Chunk. 

He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and be- 
longs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. 
In 1903 he was one of the leading spirits in the organi- 
zation of Lehighton Engine Company, No. 2, of which 
he has since been the president. He is a member of 
James I. Blakslee Camp, No. 26, United Spanish War 
Veterans, of Mahanoy City. 

Blakslee, William Wallace, who for nearly half a 
century was a foremost citizen and successful business 
man of Weatherly, was born at Springville, Susque- 
hanna county. Pa., in 1821. He was a son of Zopher 
Blakslee, and one of a family of sixteen children. 

Reared and partially educated in the place of his 
nativity, he remained beneath the paternal roof until 
his twelfth year, when he determined that the time had 
come for him to make his own way in the world. Mauch 
Chunk was then becoming a great coal center, and 
young Blakslee, like so many other enterprising spirits 




^^ /3^a^c^ ^e...^^ 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 387 

of that day, was lured thither by the bright prospects 
opening before the wonderful mountain town on the 
banks of the Lehigh. He made the journey to Mauch 
Chunk in the fall of 1833 in company with Charles Ash- 
ley and wife, a sister of Mr. Blakslee's, who brought 
with them all their worldly possessions, loaded upon 
a wagon to which three horses were attached. The 
ambitious boy rode the lead horse the entire distance 
from Susquehanna county. 

Arriving at Mauch Chunk the youth found a loyal 
friend in his brother-in-law, Asa Packer, the bold and 
sagacious pioneer, who subsequently became a leading 
individual factor in the development of the Lehigh Val- 
ley, and whose name became a household word all over 
eastern Pennsylvania. Mr. Packer took him into his 
home, and sent him to school. His instructor was the 
most famous of the early schoolmasters of Carbon 
county, James Nowlins, and under him he laid the 
foundations for his life of usefulness and success. 

During the boating season he was employed as a 
mule driver on the towpath of the Lehigh Canal. It 
was in this capacity, one starlight night, that he wit- 
nessed one of the memorable natural phenomena of 
the nineteenth century, the great meteoric shower of 
November 13, 1833. 

At the age of fifteen, having won the confidence of 
Mr. Packer, he was given a clerical position in a store 
at Rockport, which was conducted by the firm of which 
Mr. Packer was the head. He remained with this firm 
until 1857, being successively located at White Haven, 
Mauch Chunk and Nesquehoning, having full charge 
of the store at the latter place for many years. 

Coming to Weatherly at the expiration of this pe- 
riod, Mr. Blakslee embarked in business for himself, 
succeeding Eichard D. Stiles, who was the only mer- 



388 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, 

chant in the town. This venture proved a gratifying 
success, and, in addition thereto Mr. Blakslee engaged 
in the real estate business and various other enter- 
prises. He was a leader in the establishment of the 
Weatherly Water Company, of which he was the pres- 
ident from the time of its organization until his death, 
having also been one of the promoters of the Eead and 
Lovatt silk mill at Weatherly. About the year 1898 
the Blakslee Store Company was organized, he being 
the nominal head. From this time forth he lived in 
retirement. 

During his long residence in Weatherly he was hon- 
ored with most of the offices in the gift of her people, 
and he was associated with every movement calculated 
to advance the interests of the town. He was one of the 
founders of the Episcopal church at Weatherly, which 
was erected principally through his influence. 

On April 8, 1849, Mr. Blakslee was united in mar- 
riage at Mt. Lafee, Schuylkill county, to Miss Tamar 
Beadle, an estimable English lady of culture and re- 
finement. From this happy union sprang nine chil- 
dren, five of whom survive : Mrs. Grant E. Pryor, Mrs. 
Harry A. Butler, Mrs. Charles W. Keiser, William 
Wallace, Jr., and Rollin Ashley Blakslee. 

The father's death occurred on September 26, 1904, 
the result of a fall he sustained a few weeks previously, 
and from the shock of which he never rallied. His re- 
mains repose in Union Cemetery at Weatherly. Mr. 
Blakslee was prominent in Masonic circles. 

Blunt, Harrison N., general agent for The Palmer 
Land Company, came to Palmerton from New York 
in the fall of 1899, to design and construct the sewers 
and sewage disposal works for the then proposed vil- 
lage. Mr. Blunt was at this time associated with the 
well known firm of engineers of which the late Col. 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 389 

Geo. E. Waring, Jr., was the senior member. 

In September, 1900, after completing this work, he 
entered the services of The Palmer Land Company at 
Palmerton, as assistant to the general agent. He was 
soon thereafter promoted to the general agency, which 
position he still holds. 

In this capacity he has done much toward making 
Palmerton the model town that it is, most of the im- 
provements of a general nature there having been 
made under his supervision and direction. 

Bower, Charles W., one of Lehighton's most public- 
spirited citizens, an ex-burgess of that borough, and 
owning a controlling interest in the Crescent Stone and 
Manufacturing Company, of which he is secretary and 
treasury, was born at Lehighton, April 16, 1855. 

He is the grandson of one of Lehighton's pioneer 
residents, Charles G. Bower, who emigrated from 
Wurtemberg, Germany, to this country during the 
early years of the last century. Settling in Lehighton, 
he worked at his trade as a saddler and was also a 
farmer. He was the father of ten children, his oldest 
son being Charles H. Bower, who was successively a 
farmer, boat builder and contractor. 

Charles H. Bower was married to Matilda Savitz, of 
Lehighton, where the couple made their home. Their 
children were Charles and Sarah, who is the wife of 
Charles Seifert, of Lehighton, 

Having received a public school education, Charles 
W. Bower began life as a clerk in a general store. He 
was also employed in a clerical capacity by the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad Company at Packerton for a time. 
Entering the medical department of the University of 
Pennsylvania, Mr. Bower was graduated with the class 
of 1880. He is also a graduate of the medical school 
of the University of Vermont. 



390 HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 

After successfully practicing his profession for sev- 
eral years, Doctor Bower acquired a taste for some- 
thing different, and opened a machine shop, which he 
conducted for about two years. 

In 1904 he organized the Crescent Store and Manu- 
facturing Company, becoming its secretary and treas- 
urer. This concern manufactures cook stoves and 
ranges which find a market nearly all over the world. 
The industry employs about thirty men. 

Doctor Bower has taken quite an active part in 
municipal affairs, and in addition to having served as 
chief burgess, he has been secretary of the board of 
health, of town council, and of the Carbon County In- 
dustrial Society, under the auspices of which the Car- 
bon county fair is annually held. He is an adherent 
of the Republican party. 

Mr. Bower is a member of the Odd Fellows and is 
prominent in Masonic circles, belonging to Lehighton 
Lodge, No. 621 ; Packer Commandery, No. 23, K. T., of 
Mauch Chunk; Philadelphia Consistory, S. P. R. S., 
and Rajah Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S., of Reading. 

He was married to Clara Hibbler, a daughter of Ed- 
mund Hibbler and his wife Susan, of Lehighton, in 
1903. They live on South First street, occujiying the 
house in which Doctor Bower was born. 

Bowman, Maurice, a well known and public spirited 
citizen of Bowmanstown, was born on October 20, 
1858, in the village where he now lives. He is a direct 
descendant of John Deter (Hans Teter) Bowman, who 
was one of the first of the sturdy settlers to brave the 
dangers and hardships of the wilderness which lay un- 
conquered in what is now Carbon county. He came to 
Towamensing, as this whole region was then known, 
about the time of the French and Indian War. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 391 

Maurice is the fourth son of Henry Bowman, who 
was one of the twelve children of John Deter Bowman, 
a grandson of the first settler, who was also thus 
named. 

Henry Bowman was born in 1814 in the place which 
has since been called Bowmanstown. He became a 
boat builder on the Lehigh Canal, profitably engaging 
in this pursuit for more than twenty years. 

About the year 1855, acting upon the suggestion of 
a man named George Ziegenfuss, he began prospecting 
for iron ore in the Stony Ridge, where he found a min- 
eral which, after some experimenting, proved to be bet- 
ter adapted for the making of paint. 

The knowledge gained in these experiments made 
him the father of an industry which has since grown 
to important proportions — the manufacture of metallic 
brown paint. First engaging in this business on his 
own account, he later organized the Poco Metallic 
Paint Company, subsequently called the Carbon Me- 
tallic Paint Company, which is still in existence. Mr. 
Bowman and a number of his brothers were the princi- 
pal stockholders of this concern. 

He was also a well known contractor for many 
years. After the freshet of 1841, he rebuilt a large 
portion of the Lehigh Canal between Mauch Chunk and 
White Haven, while taking part in the building of 
the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Lehigh and Sus- 
quehanna Railroad. He was the contractor who erect- 
ed the county prison at Mauch Chunk, and, in his day 
built numerous houses, churches and bridges, besides 
mining large quantities of coal and iron ore. 

As a member of the firm of Bowman Brothers and 
Company, he was one of the founders of the iron works 
at Parryville. In later years he became an extensive 
producer of building and foundry sand. 



392 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Henry Bowman was united in marriage to Lavina, 
daughter of Henry Peters, of East Penn township, 
Carbon county, in 1844. Nine children were born to 
them. The father died on October 12, 1889. 

Maurice Bowman was educated in the public schools 
and at the Carbon Academy, later spending a year as 
a student of theology at Franklin and Marshall Col- 
lege. For a time he and his brother, Fulton, engaged 
with their father in the sand business, and upon the 
death of the latter, Maurice and Roger Bowman car- 
ried on the enterprise until 1892, when Maurice pur- 
chased the interest of the other and has since conduct- 
ed the business as sole owner. One of his sand quar- 
ries is located at Ashfield, East Penn township, while 
he operates another at Hazard. He is also a dealer in 
clay and building stone. 

Besides his other interests, he is the owner of the 
water system of Bowmanstown, having supplied the 
place with this necessity since 1892. The source of 
supply is a tunnel about one thousand feet long, driven 
into the Stony Eidge by his father for the Carbon 
Metallic Paint Company, which formerly secured ore 
therefrom. The water is characterized by its purity 
and is rich in health-giving mineral properties. It 
runs into the town by gravity. Altogether the system 
is one of the most exceptional and inexpensive to be 
found anywhere. 

Mr. Bowman was one of the prime movers in the 
building of St. John's Evangelical church, of Bow- 
manstown, dedicated in 1892. He contributed liberally 
to the project, and has been a local preacher of the 
denomination for many years. 

Politically speaking, he is a loyal Prohibitionist, hav- 
ing served as the county chairman of that party. 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 393 

In 1881 he was wedded to Clara A. Eckert, of Parry- 
ville, Carbon county. Four children begotten of this 
union survive. The death of the wife and mother oc- 
curred in 1902, and on March 16, 1904, Mr. Bowman 
was married to Carrie S., daughter of Elijah Heisler, 
of Orwigsburg, Schuylkill county. Three children have 
been born to them, one of whom died in infancy. 

Bowman, Penn, a leading and influential resident of 
Bowmanstown, is a descendant in the fifth generation 
of John Deter Bowman, who was one of the first set- 
tlers of that portion of Northampton county lying 
north of the Blue Ridge, and now a part of Carbon 
county. 

His father, Josiah Bowman, was the youngest son of 
John D. Bowman, and was a great grandson of the 
original settler. 

Josiah Bowman was born in the old stone hotel at 
Bowmanstown, builded by his father, and in early life 
he became the landlord of this hotel. Later he engaged 
in contracting and lumbering, besides operating two 
farms. With his brother, Henry, he was one of the 
pioneers in the manufacture of brown metallic paint, 
the ore from which this product is made being found in 
the Stony Ridge, near Bowmanstown. He was also 
financially interested in the iron works at Parryville, 
established and originally conducted by the firm of 
Bowman Brothers and Company. 

Mr. Bowman chose as his life partner Louisa Berke- 
meyer, of Heidelberg, Lehigh county. Their children 
were: Henrietta L., wife of Lewis F. Balliet; Mar- 
garet, who married Abel Boyer ; Penn, Lillie Q., widow 
of Harry J. Aaron, and Alton H. Bowman. Two oth- 
ers died in infancy. 

Penn Bowman was born at Bowmanstown, May 21, 
1864. He attended the public schools and was for 



394 . HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

several terms a student at Kutztown State Normal 
School. He is also a graduate of the Allentown Busi- 
ness College. For a short time after leaving school 
he was employed as a bookkeeper at Allentown, but in 
1889 formed a partnership with E. A. Boyer, starting 
in the mercantile business at Bowmanstown under the 
firm name of Boyer and Bowman. Purchasing the in- 
terest of his partner in 1893, Mr. Bowman conducted 
the business as sole owner until 1905, when he, in turn, 
sold out to Mr. Boyer. 

He then operated a planing mill for several years, 
and followed the business of a general contractor. 

Mr. Bowman is a director of the Citizens' National 
Bank of Lehighton, being associated in a similar capa- 
city with the Towamensing Fire Insurance Company. 
He was one of the organizers of the Lutheran church 
at Bowmanstown, and has served as superintendent of 
the Sunday school connected therewith for a number of 
years. 

In 1889 he was united in marriage to Agnes M., 
daughter of Edward Boyer, of Millport, Carbon 
county. 

Boyle, James J., editor and owner of the Mauch 
Chunk Daily Times, the pioneer daily newspaper of 
Carbon county, is the son of Daniel and Grace (Han- 
Ion) Boyle, and was born at Seek, Schuylkill county, 
April 4, 1872. His father emigrated to this country 
from Ireland in 1869. 

When James was still quite young, his parents re- 
moved to Old Buck Mountain, Carbon county, where 
the father was employed as a coal miner, while his son 
picked slate on the breaker of the colliery and during 
the winter months attended the public schools. After 
a residence of fifteen years at this place, the family 
removed to Beaver Meadow, where Mr. Boyle received 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 395 

the rest of his schooling and worked in and about the 
mines in various clerical and mechanical capacities. 

In 1902 he became a reporter on the staff of the 
Daily Standard, the only morning paper published in 
Hazleton, continuing in this position for six years. On 
February 21, 1908, he purchased the journal, together 
with the job printing business which he now owns. 

The forerunner of the Times was the Lehigh Pioneer 
and Courier, first issued on April 2, 1833, and the old- 
est newspaper in the Lehigh coal region. The paper is 
clean and reliable, reflecting the personality of its 
editor and publisher. It is accorded liberal advertis- 
ing patronage. 

Mr, Boyle was married to Annie E., daughter of 
Lawrence Boyce, a mine foreman of Duyrea, Luzerne 
county, but formerly of Beaver Meadow, June 3, 1903. 

Bray, Walter M., postmaster of Palmerton, a direc- 
tor of the First National Bank of that town, and a 
member of the firm of Lewis & Bray, operating a slate 
quarry near Millport, is a son of Andrew and Mary 
(Tucker) Bray, and was born near Dartmouth, Eng- 
land, November 30, 1859. He is one of a family of fif- 
teen children, all of whom grew to maturity. 

Leaving school at the age of ten years, he found em- 
ployment in the slate quarries near his home; when 
he was fourteen he was already a full-fledged slater, 
and did the work of a man. He continued in this ca- 
pacity until reaching his majority, when he sailed for 
America, settling at East Bangor, Northampton coun- 
ty. Pa. Following his trade there for a short period, 
he went to Canada for a time, but returned to East 
Bangor, and later lived at Newton, N. J. 

Coming to Carbon county in 1895, Mr. Bray became 
the partner of William Lewis, the firm having a lease 
on the Old Millport Slate Quarry, near Millport. They 



396 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

are still associated in this enterprise, and employ about 
twenty-five men in their operations. Mr. Bray has 
been a resident of Palmerton since the inception of the 
town, in 1900. He was one of the organizers of the 
First National Bank, and is still a member of its di- 
rectorate. In 1909 he was appointed to the position of 
postmaster, while he is connected with the Palmerton 
Co-operative Association, which aims to foster and 
advance the best interests of the community bearing 
that name. 

Mr. Bray was united in marriage to Mary E. Rob- 
erts, of East Bangor, October 16, 1886. They have be- 
come the parents of these children : Liona, Walter A., 
Charles, Jennie M., Edith B., Lester C, Margaret, Bes- 
sie, William R., Martha, Dorothy, John, Evelyn and 
Richard Bray. 

Mr. Bray holds membership in various fraternal or- 
ganizations, among the number being the Odd Fellows, 
Red Men, Knights of the Golden Eagle and the Masons. 
He and his family attend the Episcopal church. Mr. 
Bray is a staunch Republican. 

Brenckman, Henry L., was born at Hazleton, Pa., 
on September 15, 1869, the son of Frederick and Su- 
sannah (Bittner) Brenckman. His paternal grand- 
father, who also bore the name of Henry, emigrated to 
the United States from Germany, about 1835, settling 
at Beaver Meadow, where he conducted a hotel until 
his death. 

Frederick Brenckman learned the trade of a car- 
penter, which he followed all his life, also acquiring a 
farm at Hudsondale, where he died in 1884 at the age 
of forty-four years. 

Henry was but fifteen when he became the bread- 
winner of a family of six children and a widowed moth- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 397 

er, and he played the part of both a father and a 
brother toward his younger brothers and sisters. 

In 1889 he entered the service of the Tide Water 
Pipe Company, at Hudsondale, where he is still em- 
ployed as a stationary engineer. He has been the pres- 
ident of the Packer township school board for many 
years, and has always taken great interest in Sunday 
school work. He has been the teacher of the Bible class 
of the Hudsondale Sunday school for more than twenty 
years, having also served as superintendent of this 
organization for nearly the same period of time. It 
was under his leadership that the handsome chapel of 
the school was built. 

Formerly he was the Democratic county committee- 
man for his district, but in 1912 he joined the Progres- 
sive movement and supported Theodore Roosevelt for 
the presidency. 

On September 1, 1892, Mr. Brenckman was married 
to Minnie, daughter of Herman Strunk and his wife 
Ellen, of Hudsondale. Their children are : Raymond, 
Virginia, Lillian, Herman, Dorothy, Ruth, deceased; 
Esther, Frederick and Louise. 

Breslin, Andrew, president of the Citizens ' National 
Bank of Lansford, and one of the foremost contractors 
and builders in this portion of the state, is a resident 
of Summit Hill. 

His grandfather, Patrick Breslin emigrated to this 
place from County Donegal, Ireland, in 1824, at which 
time there was not a house on the present site of the 
town, while there were but two or three dwellings in 
the locality. He was one of the pioneer miners of an- 
thracite coal, spending nearly the whole of his active 
life in the employ of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 
Company as a foreman. His death occurred at Sum- 
mit Hill in 1865. 



398 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

John F. Breslin, a son of the aforementioned, was 
born at Summit Hill on September 7, 1845. He was a 
cabinet maker, later becoming a contractor and build- 
er. He was married to Ann, daughter of Andrew and 
Susan Boyle, of Tamaqua, in 1866, who bore him four 
sons and three daughters. Mr. Breslin served on the 
side of the Union during the Civil War, and was an 
active Democrat, being one of the most influential cit- 
izens of Summit Hill. He died on September 20, 1892. 

Andrew Breslin, son of John F. Breslin, claims Al- 
lentown, Lehigh county, as the place of his nativity, 
his parents having made their home here for a few 
years. He was born on August 1, 1870, while his boy- 
hood was passed at Summit Hill, where he attended 
the public schools. Under his father's instructions he 
learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed until 
his twenty-first year, when he entered the office of a 
Philadelphia architect as a student of that profession. 

The death of his father taking place a year later, he 
was compelled to forego his ambition in this direction 
to take charge of the affairs of the deceased, who, in 
addition to his other interests also conducted an un- 
dertaking establishment. This portion of the business 
he turned over to his brother, John J. Breslin, in 1907. 

Among the more important buildings which Mr. Bres- 
lin has constructed, the following may be mentioned: 
The Schwab school building, at Weatherly; the Third 
Ward school building, at Lehighton; the Greek Cath- 
olic church, of Nesquehoning ; the Philadelphia Bar- 
gain Store and the Elks' Building, in Tamaqua; the 
Citizens ' National Bank, of Lansf ord ; the magnificent 
new high school building at Summit Hill; the public 
school building of Coal Dale, and the plant of the 
Freeland Brewing Company, of Freeland, Luzerne 
county. He also built the sewer systems of Summit 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 399 

Hill and Coal Dale, among the first of the flush-tank 
variety in the state, besides the large storage reservoir 
of the Summit Hill Water Company. He owns and 
conducts a planing mill at Summit Hill, which is the 
principal enterprise of an individual nature in the 
borough. 

Mr. Breslin was one of the organizers of the Citi- 
zens' National Bank, of Lansford, of which he was 
elected president in 1909, He was president of the 
town council for three years, and has served as a mem- 
ber of the school board. His political allegiance is 
given to the Democracy, being now a member of the 
county executive committee of that party. He is a 
member of the Sons of Veterans and of the Benevolent 
and Protective Order of Elks, while being an adherent 
of the Roman Catholic church. 

Mr. Breslin was married on April 3, 1893, to Agnes 
Daly, daughter of Eugene and Ann Daly, of Mahanoy 
City, Pa. Their three children are : Annie, Mae, and 
John F. Breslin. 

Breslin, James M., a leading member of the bar of 
Carbon county, residing at East Mauch Chunk, was 
born at Tresckow, Banks township, on January 1, 
1870. He is the son of Daniel and Ann (Gallagher) 
Breslin, both natives of Ireland. His father was born 
in County Donegal, August 6, 1833. Emigrating to the 
United States at the age of sixteen, he located at Buck 
Mountain, spending the whole of his active life as a 
miner at various operations in the Lehigh district. He 
was a Democrat, and took an active part in the political 
affairs of Banks township and of the county at large. 

Seven of his ten children, all of whom attended the 
public school at Tresckow, became school teachers. 
The father died at Beaver Meadow, February 6, 11908. 



400 I HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

James M. Breslin started life as a slate picker, later 
working in and about the mines of Banks township. 
He taught school for ten successive terms, and choos- 
ing the law as his profession, he became a student in 
the office of Hon. E. M. Mulhearn, of Mauch Chunk. 
Being admitted to the bar of Carbon county in October, 
1897, he opened an office at Mauch Chunk, soon gaining 
recognition and building up a good general practice. 

Mr. Breslin has been particularly successful as a 
criminal lawyer. He has defended many cases coming 
under this category, and his record is one of unbroken 
successes. For three years he served as the legal ad- 
viser of the county commissioners, having also been 
retained in a similar capacity by the officers of various 
districts of the county. 

During a period of nearly ten years, Mr. Breslin, in 
association with David Pursell, very successfully oper- 
ated the old coal mines at Hacklebernie, near Mauch 
Chunk. On February 14, 1899, he was married to Miss 
Elizabeth Murphy, a school teacher, of Wilkes-Barre, 
Pa. They have two children: James D. and Eliza- 
beth, aged nine and seven years, respectively. 

Mr. Breslin served several terms as a member of the 
school board of East Mauch Chunk. He is a supporter 
of the principles advocated by the Democratic party, 
and a communicant of the Roman Catholic church. 

Bretney, Clement H., the leading photographer of 
Lehighton, was born in Mahoning township. Carbon 
county, on September 18, 1873. He is the son of 
Thomas J. and Mary (Schaffer) Bretney, both natives 
of Mahoning township. His father was formerly a 
railroader, and later owned a local freight and express 
business in Lehighton, where he now conducts a baking 
establishment. 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 401 

After leaving the public schools, Clement studied the 
art of photography as a private pupil under H. Parker 
Rolfe, of Philadelphia. Subsequently he pursued a 
general course at the Curtis-Taylor Studio in the same 
city. Following this he worked with W. D. Rishel, a 
Lehighton photographer, whose establishment he pur- 
chased, and whom he succeeded in business, in 1899. 
This studio was situated on the Bankway, and was oc- 
cupied by Mr. Bretney for two years, when he built his 
present place on Second street. Here, by painstaking 
and artistic work, he has secured a large and con- 
stantly growing patronage. 

He is also a dealer in kodaks, and carries a large 
stock of all kinds of photographic supplies, besides 
doing finishing work for amateurs. He has one of the 
largest and best equipped establishments of its kind 
in the Lehigh Valley. 

Fraternally Mr. Bretney is identified with the Pa- 
triotic Order of Sons of America, the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, and is a member of various Ma- 
sonic bodies. He attends the United Evangelical 
church, and is still unmarried. 

Bretney, Henry J., cashier of the First National 
Bank of Lehighton, is a son of Clinton Bretney, and 
was born at New Mahoning, Carbon county, January 
12, 1856. His father, in the early fifties, married 
Amanda Meinhard, a native of Carbon county. The 
family removed to Lehighton in 1861. 

Mr. Bretney received his education in the public 
schools of Lehighton and at the Carbon Academy, 
which last named institution started many of the young 
men of the lower end of the county upon successful 
careers. After leaving school, Mr. Bretney learned the 
trade of a coach painter, after which he entered the 
forwarding office of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad Com- 



402 > HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

pany at Packerton, serving in a clerical capacity at this 
place for nine years. For four years he was employed 
by the same corporation at Mauch Chunk. 

On January 1, 1892, he entered the employ of the 
First National Bank of Lehighton as a bookkeeper, 
being promoted to the cashiership October 1, 1908. 
Mr. Bretney has served as borough auditor and as 
school director, while he has been the borough treas- 
urer for eighteen years. He was also treasurer of the 
Lehigh Valley Building and Loan Association for 
twelve years. He is a charter member of Zion's Re- 
formed church, of which he is also the treasurer. Mr. 
Bretney is also a charter member of Lehighton Coun- 
cil, No. 370, Royal Arcanum, having served as secre- 
tary of this lodge for a quarter of a century. He also 
belongs to the Knights of Malta. 

In 1878 Mr. Bretney was married to Mary A. Trox- 
ell, daughter of Paul Troxell and his wife Mary, of 
Egypt, Lehigh county. Their children are: Clara, 
Charles, Bessie and Florence. Clara is a graduate of 
East Stroudsburg State Normal School, and has been 
a teacher in Lehighton for a period of nine years; 
Charles is cashier of the First National Bank of 
Weatherly, and was married to Mayme Portz, of 
Lansford; Bessie is the wife of Robert R. Ash, of 
Lehighton, while Florence remains at home. 

Browell, Joseph H., a prominent young business man 
of Palmerton, is the son of John and Margaret (An- 
gus) Browell, both natives of Northumberland county, 
England. They were married in 1872, becoming the 
parents of five children. In 1880 the family emigrated 
to America, first settling at Jeddo, Luzerne county. 
Pa., and later removing to Centralia, Pa. The father 
was a contract miner and rockman. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 403 

Joseph H. Browell was born at the old home in Eng- 
land on January 7, 1876. He graduated from the high 
school of Centralia, and at the age of fourteen entered 
a drug store in that town with the object in view of 
learning the business. Four years later he went to 
Philadelphia, where he was employed in a similar es- 
tablishment, being afterwards successively located at 
South Bethlehem and at East Mauch Chunk. It was 
while stationed at the last named place that he was 
licensed by the pharmaceutical examining board of the 
state. 

In 1901 Mr. Browell took charge of the drug store 
of J. M. Hess, at Palmerton, becoming a partner in the 
enterprise at the end of a year. Subsequently the firm 
also engaged in the hardware business, and in 1909 
Mr. Browell purchased the interest of his partner and 
became full owner. 

He was one of the promoters of the First National 
Bank of Palmerton, of which he has been a director 
since its organization. Every measure intended for 
the welfare and upbuilding of Palmerton receives his 
loyal and constant support. 

In June, 1903, Mr. Browell was married to Daisy, 
daughter of Luther and Alice La Barre, of East Mauch 
Chunk. They have two children : Jack and Margaret 
L. Browell. 

Butler, Henry A., a representative Mauch Chunk 
business man, was born at that place on January 3, 
1861. His father, Alexander W. Butler, whose birth 
occurred in 1822, was a native of Susquehanna county. 
When a boy he came to Mauch Chunk, and by industry 
and integrity he established himself in the confidence 
of the community in which he spent the remainder of 
his life as an honored and influential citizen. For a 
period of about thirty years he was the cashier of the 



404 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

First National Bank of Mauch Chunk, the predecessor 
of the Mauch Chunk National Bank of to-day. 

In early life he was married to Anna, daughter of 
John Eichards, an ironmaster, of Wejrmouth, N. J., 
who was also interested for a time in the operation of 
the Maria Furnace, in Franklin township, Carbon 
county. They became the parents of these children 
William R., Elizabeth, wife of Hon. Laird H. Barber 
Mary, who married C. A. Braman, of New York city 
Fannie, and Henry Butler. The father died during the 
year 1888. 

Henry A. Butler gained his elementary education in 
the public schools of his native town, graduating from 
the high school with the class of 1879. Entering Le- 
high University he completed his course in 1883 with 
the degree of B.S. For a few years he was employed 
as a bookkeeper by the Mauch Chunk National Bank, 
later entering the service of B. F. Barger, a wholesale 
dealer in lumber and grain, at Mauch Chunk, as a book- 
keeper and salesman. 

In 1889 he accepted a position as private secretary 
to M. S. Kemmerer, for whom he also very successfully 
managed the Parryville Iron Works until 1905. Since 
then he has been engaged in business on his own ac- 
count as a wholesale dealer in coal, maintaining an of- 
fice at Mauch Chunk. He is also interested in a man- 
agerial way, in a number of coal properties in the 
South. 

In association with W. A. Leisenring, Mr. Butler, in 
1895, established the Penn Forest Brook Trout Hatch- 
ery, which soon became famous as the largest of its 
kind in the world. Mr. Butler was principally instru- 
mental in the prosperity which attended this enterprise 
during the ten years he was associated with it. He is 
the president of the Mauch Chunk Gas Company, and 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. j 405 

is one of the trustees of the Dimmick Memorial Li- 
brary. 

On October 26, 1887, he was married to Nellie L. 
Blakslee, daughter of W. W. Blakslee, of Weatherly, 
Pa. Their children are: Marion L., Alexander W., 
and Edith B. Butler. Marion is a graduate of the Na- 
tional Cathedral School, of Washington, D. C, while 
Alexander is a student at Lehigh University. 

Mr. Butler is a member of St. Mark's Episcopal 
church, of Mauch Chunk, of which he has been a ves- 
tryman for more than fifteen years, also being a mem- 
ber of the Masonic fraternity. His home is in East 
Mauch Chunk. 

Chamberlain, Harry, chief electrician of the electric 
light plant of the borough of Weatherly, is a grandson 
of John Chamberlain, who came to Columbia county, 
Pa., about the year 1800. The family was established 
in America during Colonial times, while several of its 
members participated in the war of Independence. 
John Chamberlain was a farmer and lumberman, being 
the father of a large family. One of his sons was Wil- 
liam H. Chamberlain, who was twice married. His first 
wife, before her marriage, was Salome Van Horn, and 
they became the parents of seven children, all of whom 
have died. 

Following the death of his first wife, Mr. Chamber- 
lain, in 1864, was wedded to Miss Maria Eames, of 
Mansfield, Pa. The issue of this union was ten chil- 
dren, eight of the number surviving: Frank, Harry, 
Salome, wife of S. P. Burke; Maggie, wife of George 
B. Murphy; Annie, relict of the late H. A. Beers; 
Joseph, Jennie, wife of Charles Hunsinger, and Ar- 
thur. 

Mr. Chamberlain was a lumberman, following that 
vocation practically all his life. In 1864 he came to 



406 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. ' 

Packer township, Carbon county, later removing to 
Weatherly, where he died in 1894. 

Harry Chamberlain was born in Weatherly, January 
10, 1869. He acquired his education in the public 
schools, early assisting his father in his various lum- 
bering operations. Later he was employed for several 
years in a clerical capacity by G. W. Miller, a Weather- 
ly merchant. In 1894 he entered the service of the 
borough of Weatherly as a fireman and engineer at the 
electric light plant, being placed in full charge in June, 
1900. 

It is worthy of note that Weatherly is the only mu- 
nicipality in Carbon county owning and operating its 
lighting plant. Other towns in the county that have 
tried the experiment have found it to be a losing prop- 
osition and have either leased or sold their plants to 
private parties, who, with the application of business 
methods and stricter economy, are succeeding where 
the municipality had failed. The success of the Weath- 
erly plant for some years seemed doubtful, and the 
indications were that it would go the route of nearly 
all municipal lighting plants. Now, however, it is es- 
tablished on a sound, self-supporting basis, and, ac- 
cording to the borough statement for the year ending 
March 1, 1910, the net earnings of the plant for the 
previous year amounted to $5,155.51. Much of the 
credit for the good showing made is due to Mr. Cham- 
berlain, who has given this public utility the same 
careful and intelligent supervision that private enter- 
prises usually receive. Mr. Chamberlain is a gradu- 
ate in one of the electrical courses offered by the In- 
ternational Correspondence Schools, of Scranton. He 
has served as a member of the school board of the 
borough and was chairman of its building committee 
at the time of the erection of the Schwab school build- 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY, , 407 

ing. He is a member of the Methodist church of 
Weatherly, and as assistant superintendent of the 
Sunday school connected therewith, has been particu- 
larly active and progressive. 

On August 17, 1893, occurred the marriage of Mr. 
Chamberlain to Sallie L., daughter of Margaret and 
William Sigafoos, of White Haven. They have become 
the parents of these children: Maggie, Elsie, Harry 
L., May, Helen and Joseph W. Ruth died in infancy. 

Christman, David A., a former jury commissioner of 
Carbon county, now conducting the Alameda Restau- 
rant at Lehighton, was born near Kresgeville, Monroe 
county, December 19, 1866. 

He is a grandson of John Christman, while his fa- 
ther was Edward Christman, both natives of Monroe 
county. His mother bore the maiden name of Chris- 
tiana Eckhart, being reared near Stemlersville, Carbon 
county. Mr. Christman is a product of the Slatington 
high school, having also attended the Polytechnic In- 
stitute, at Gilberts, Monroe county. He taught school 
for several years in Lower Towamensing township, 
after which he was engaged as a produce dealer. 

In 1893 he came to Weatherly and secured employ- 
ment in a clerical capacity in the mercantile estab- 
lishment of Elmer Warner. For six years he was em- 
ployed as a salesman for 0. J. Saeger, a wholesale 
fruit and produce dealer, of Lehighton. In 1900 Mr. 
Christman purchased the Alameda Restaurant, which 
he has successfully conducted since that time. 

On December 31, 1887, he was united in marriage to 
Mary L. Shiner, daughter of John A. Shiner and his 
wife Fiana, of Slatington. Their children are : Harvey 
J., Jennie E., William E., Edward H., and Bessie A. 
Christman. 



408 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY, 

Harvey is employed as a clerk in the First National 
Bank of Lehighton, while William is a graduate of the 
Lehighton high school and of the South Bethlehem 
Business College. 

Mr. Christman holds membership in the Odd Fel- 
lows, Knights of Malta, Red Men, and the Eagles. He 
is also connected with the Germania Saenger Bund, 
of Lehighton, and with the Rod and Gun Club of that 
town, besides being associated with Lehigh Fire Com- 
pany, No. 1. He was elected to the office of jury 
commissioner of Carbon county in 1906. He is now a 
member of the Lehighton Board of Commerce. 

Christman, Hiram, operating one of the finest and 
most productive farms in Towamensing township, is a 
son of William H. and Lavina (George) Christman. 
The father was a native of Towamensing township, 
born in 1834. He followed the vocation of a farmer 
and was the parent of five children. He died at the 
age of thirty-one. 

Hiram Christman was born in Eldred township, 
Monroe county, February 27, 1856. He attended the 
public schools until his seventeenth year, while all of 
his mature life has been spent in agricultural pursuits. 
In 1883 he purchased sixty-one acres of land in Towa- 
mensing township, the nucleus of his present farm of 
two hundred and fifty acres, and proceeded to clear the 
ground, which was thickly covered with brush. He 
there built his home, at a distance of about four miles 
from Trachsville, and has lived there continuously 
since. 

As a member of the township school board Mr. 
Christman has taken an active interest in the cause of 
popular education, manifesting progressive tendencies. 
His political allegiance is given to the Republican 
party. 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 409 

At tlie age of twenty-two he was married to Sarah 
B. Strohl, a daughter of Joel Strohl, of Towamensing 
township. Their children are: Harrison A., Emma 
J., wife of Oliver Koons, of Philadelphia ; William H., 
Cora M., wife of John Bollinger; Eugene E., Martin 
F., Sallie A., and Mamie M. Christman. 

Mr. Christman and his family are members of the 
Lutheran church. 

Clewell, William H., a Summit Hill physician and 
surgeon, and postmaster of that town, is descended 
from ancestors who settled in Pennsylvania during 
Colonial times. The first of his family to come to 
America was Louisa Frache Clevel, a widow, who was 
accompanied by her two sons, George Craft and John 
Franz. The grandparents of these boys were natives 
of the province of Dauphine, France. 

They were Huguenots, and upon the revocation of 
the Edict of Nantes, they fled to Auerbach, in Baden. 
It was in 1737 that the widow and her sons emigrated 
thence to Philadelphia. Franz was born in 1720, while 
George was six years his junior. 

Being bound out to pay for their passage, then a 
common practice, the family lived for a time at Oley, 
Berks county, going from there to Nazareth, North- 
ampton county. All are buried in the Schoenech Mor- 
avian cemetery in Northampton, near Nazareth. Franz 
was the great-great-grandfather of the subject of this 
memoir. 

William H., son of Jacob L. and Emma L. 
(Schmueckle) Clewell, was born at Nazareth on Sep- 
tember 19, 1869. His father was a cabinet maker, and 
he gained his early training in the Moravian parochial 
schools of his native town. In 1881 the family removed 
to Philadelphia, where he attended the public schools. 
Learning the drug business he became a registered 



410 ' HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

pharmacist, following his calling for several years in 
New York city. 

At the expiration of this period he entered the 
Medico-Chirurgical College at Philadelphia, from 
which institution he was graduated in 1896. After 
practising his profession in Philadelphia for a year. 
Dr. Clewell came to Summit Hill, where he has since 
lived, enjoying a large practise. He has long taken a 
keen interest in military affairs, and during his resi- 
dence in New York was connected with the militia of 
that state. During the war with Spain he recruited 
and organized Company L of the Ninth Regiment, 
Pennsylvania Volunteers, being commissioned as first 
lieutenant, and serving as such until the company was 
mustered out. He has since served in various official 
capacities in the National Guard, and is now a first 
lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps of the United 
States Army. 

His services were of value in the organization of 
the First Regiment of the P. 0. S. of A. Reserves, of 
which he is the lieutenant-colonel. 

Dr. Clewell, who is a Republican, has held various 
offices in Summit Hill. His appointment as postmaster 
of the town came in 1906. He is a member of several 
Masonic bodies, and is a Past Exalted Ruler of the 
Tamaqua lodge of Elks, also being identified with a 
number of other fraternal societies, and with the 
Naval and Military Order of the Spanish-American 
War. He is affiliated with the Carbon County Medical 
Society, the Pennsylvania Medical Society, and with 
the Philadelphia Medical Club. 

In 1888 he was married to Nellie B., daughter of 
John E. and Emeline Armour, of Philadelphia. Their 
only son is John A. Clewell. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 4X1 

Cortright, Nathan D., Jr., whose family name has 
been intimately associated with the anthracite coal 
industry since the early development of the Lehigh 
region, is a representative of one of the pioneer fam- 
ilies of the Wyoming Valley, and of early appearance 
in New Netherland. 

The Cortrights originated in the old town of Kort- 
ryk, in Flanders, which place is celebrated in history, 
for not far from its walls was fought the famous "Bat- 
tle of the Spurs. ' ' There the flower of the French no- 
bility was overthrown by the Flemish army, largely 
composed of the weavers of Ghent and Burges. After 
the conflict the victors gathered up from the corpse- 
strewn field some four thousand golden spurs, hence 
the name which designates the bloody event. 

During the early years of the seventeenth century 
civil wars and persecutions devastated the land, while 
the village of Kortryk several times changed hands. 

Among those who left these turbulent scenes for a 
haven of safety in America, was Sebastian Van Kort- 
right, who embarked on April 16, 1663, in the ship 
"Brindle Cow." He brought with him his family, 
paying for their passage more than two hundred and 
four florins, the charge being thirty-nine florins for 
each adult, and half that sum for children of ten years 
and under. 

Among his children were two sons, Michael and Jan 
Bastian. He settled in Harlem, New York, becoming 
one of the most opulent men of that time and place. 
From this source sprang Elisha Cortright, the great- 
grandfather of the subject of this memoir, who was 
among the first to settle on the rich and inviting soil 
of the Wyoming Valley. During the trying scenes of 
the Indian wars and the Revolution, he shared the 
hardships and vicissitudes incident to that period. 



412 HISTORY OF CABBON COUNTY. 

Being incapacitated at the time of the battle of Wy- 
oming, more commonly known as the "Wyoming 
Massacre," his brother John served in his stead and 
was killed. 

Isaac Cortright, son of the aforementioned, spent 
his entire lifetime as a farmer on the banks of the 
beautiful Susquehanna. Among his eight children was 
Nathan D., the father of N. D. Cortright, Jr. Born in 
Salem township, Luzerne county, February 11, 1817, 
he grew to maturity at the place of his birth. At the 
age of nineteen he came to Beaver Meadow, Carbon 
county, and secured a position on the engineering corps 
of Ario Pardee and J. G. Fell, engaged in the construc- 
tion of the Beaver Meadow Eailroad. Soon thereafter 
he was appointed as the general shipi3ing and boat 
agent of the Hazleton Coal Company, of which he later 
became the superintendent, continuing as such until 
1857, when he embarked in the coal business for him- 
self, living at Mauch Chunk. 

He participated in the development of the coal and 
iron interests of the Lehigh region, and in a more lim- 
ited sense, extended his activities to the Wyoming coal 
fields. For nearly sixty years he lived on the same 
spot of ground in Mauch Chunk. Although modest 
and unassuming he was recognized as one of the most 
useful and public spirited citizens of that place. 

He chose as his life companion Margaretta L., 
daughter of Ezekiel W. Harlan. Her parents were of 
Quaker origin, coming to Mauch Chunk from Chester 
county in 1826. Mr. Harlan was associated with the 
late Asa Packer in the operation of the mines at Nes- 
quehoning and in a number of other enterprises. 

Nathan D. Cortright, Sr., passed away on October 
11, 1902. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 413 

N. D. Cortright, Jr., the second of a family of six 
children, was born at Mauch Chunk, on November 24, 
1847. Having attended the schools of the place of his 
nativity, he finished his education at Dickinson Sem- 
inary, Williamsport, Pa. He then entered his father 's 
office, and in 1873 was taken into partnership with him 
under the style and title of N. D. Cortright and Son. 
This relationship was maintained until the death of the 
elder, since which time Mr. Cortright has conducted 
the business under the old firm name. 

He is financially interested in various mining prop- 
erties, while being a wholesale dealer in coal, and he is 
the president of the Beaver Run Coal Company, oper- 
ating a mine at Beaverdale, Pa., which is in the bitu- 
minous region. He is also a director of the Mauch 
Chunk Trust Company. 

Mr. Cortright is a Republican, and served as post- 
master of Mauch Chunk under the successive adminis- 
trations of Hayes, Garfield, Arthur and Cleveland. He 
attends the First Presbyterian church of Mauch 
Chunk, of which he is one of the trustees. 

On October 22, 1874, he was married to Margaret S., 
a daughter of John and Margaret (Connell) Kennedy, 
of Port Kennedy, Montgomery county. Pa. Their chil- 
dren are : Charles Homer, who is in business with his 
father; Frank Barton and Harry Kennedy, who are 
associated in the coal business in Philadelphia under 
the name of the Cortright Coal Company; Edgar 
Maurice, a mining engineer in the west ; Donald Nath- 
an, connected with the Philadelphia Press, and Mar- 
garet Kennedy Cortright. 

Craig, Hon. Allen, who achieved distinction as a 
lawyer, jurist and legislator, was born at Lehigh Gap, 
Carbon county, on December 25, 1835. His ancestors, 
who were of Scotch-Irish extraction, came to America 



414 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

in 1714, locating in Philadelphia, and, in 1728, remov- 
ing to Northampton county, Pa. 

General Thomas Craig, his grandfather, served gal- 
lantly under Arnold in the French and Indian War, 
and during the Revolution he commanded the Third 
Pennsylvania Regiment. Upon the declaration of the 
second war against England, still hale and hearty, he 
was appointed as a general in the American Army. 
In civil life he followed the occupation of a farmer. 

His son. Captain Thomas Craig, the father of Judge 
Craig, was born in Northampton county in 1772. In 
1795 he accompanied his parents on their removal to 
Towamensing township, which later became a part of 
Carbon county. Subsequently he became a dealer in 
general merchandise at Lehigh Gap, also engaging in 
the lumber business. 

In addition to his other interests, he conducted a 
stage line making regular trips between Easton and 
Mauch Chunk, being also the owner of the Lehigh Gap 
Inn, which was a stopping place for travelers on the 
turnpike leading from Berwick to Easton. 

His military title was bestowed upon him as com- 
mander of a troop of horse in the Pennsylvania militia. 
He also represented his district in the state legislature, 
and was a leader of thought in his community. 

His first wife was a Miss Kuntz, who bore him two 
sons, Thomas and Samuel. Subsequent to her death, 
he married Catherine Hagenbach. Their five children 
were : Eliza, John, Allen, William and Robert. 

Allen Craig was educated at the old Vandeveer Acad- 
emy at Easton and at Lafayette College, graduating 
from the last named institution in 1855. Choosing the 
law as his profession, he became a student in the of- 
fice of Hon. M. M. Dimmick, of Mauch Chunk, being 
admitted to the bar of Carbon county on June 4, 1858. 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 415 

His subsequent career was one of usefulness and 
honor. In 1859 he was elected as district attorney of 
Carbon county, which position he filled until 1866. 
During the latter year he was elected to membership 
in the state legislature, serving for three successive 
terms. Higher political honors came to him in 1878, 
when he was chosen to represent his district in the 
state senate for the term of four years. 

In 1879 he formed a partnership with James S. 
Loose, of Mauch Chunk, and the firm which was then 
established became one of the best known in the legal 
profession of the Lehigh Valley. Judge Craig was 
prominent as a corporation lawyer. He was one of 
the group of able attorneys who represented the Com- 
monwealth in the famous Mollie Maguire trials, which 
resulted in the breaking up of that organization during 
the seventies. 

In 1892, as the nominee of the Democratic party, he 
was elected president judge of the courts of Carbon 
and Monroe counties, serving until 1901, when Carbon 
was constituted a separate judicial district. Hon. 
Horace Heydt was then appointed to the bench of Car- 
bon county, while Judge Craig was transferred to the 
district comprising Monroe and Pike counties. During 
the following year both were candidates for the judge- 
ship of Carbon county for the full term of ten years. 
Judge Craig being defeated in a cFose contest. 

During the early years of his tenure on the bench, 
he was unable to hold court to any great extent in 
Mauch Chunk, owing to his previous connection as an 
attorney with much of the litigation of the county. As 
a judge he was fair and broad-minded. Well versed in 
the intricacies and technicalities of the law, he was 
also possessed of a generous fund of common sense, 
upon which he drew liberally in rendering his deci- 



416 ' HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

sions, with the result that he was seldom reversed by 
the higher courts. 

In demeanor he was genial and courteous, which, to- 
gether with his scholarly attainments, made his com- 
panionship delightful. 

A short period of service in a Pennsylvania regiment 
during the Civil War entitled him to membership in 
the Grand Army of the Republic. He was always a 
favorite with the old veterans, and few camp-fires or 
gatherings of that nature were held in Mauch Chunk 
at which he was not present, lending eloquence and 
good-fellowship to the success of the occasion. 

He was one of the prime movers in the erection of 
the Carbon county Soldiers' Monument, dedicated at 
Mauch Chunk on September 28, 1886. 

For years he was a director of the First National 
Bank of Mauch Chunk, being also interested in the gas 
and water companies of the borough. 

Judge Craig was married in 1866 to A. Isabel, 
daughter of Edwin A. and Harriet (Dexter) Douglas. 
Four children were born to them : Douglas, Henry D., 
Harriet, and Gay Gordon Craig. The father died on 
December 31, 1902. 

Craig, Hector Tyndale, whose forefathers for gen- 
erations figured conspicuously in the civil and military 
annals of the commonwealth, is one of the prominent 
young business men of the lower end of Carbon county. 
He is associated with his brother, Thomas B. Craig, in 
the conduct of the mercantile business, and other in- 
terests established by his father, the late Colonel John 
Craig, at Lehigh Gap. 

Born at Lehigh Gap, October 17, 1873, Mr. Craig 
received his education in the schools of Lower Towa- 
mensing township, entering the employ of his father at 
the age of seventeen, and growing up in the business. 




<^9^r^^<^^ 



^¥T=tC5^ 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 417 

He is a director of the First National Bank of Sla- 
tington, and is secretary and treasurer of the Lehigh 
Water Gap Bridge Company. 

Mr. Craig is a "companion of the first class" in the 
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United 
States, and is a member of the various Masonic bodies. 
He is also identified with the Odd Fellows and the S^ons 
of Veterans. 

In 1907 he was united in marriage to Annie C, 
daughter of the late James B. Boeder, who was a 
teller in the Second National Bank of Allentown. 
Three children have been born to them: Eichard T., 
Ruth, and James L Craig. They reside in the old 
Craig homestead at Lehigh Gap. 

Craig, Colonel John. One of Carbon county's most 
distinguished native sons passed away, when on Octo- 
ber 22, 1908, full of years, and leaving behind him the 
record of a life of service and of usefulness, Colonel 
John Craig, of Lehigh Gap, died. His ancestral his- 
tory is one of distinction and of honor. From an early 
epoch in the colonization of Pennsylvania, members of 
the family have figured prominently in military and 
civil life, and the record of Colonel Craig is in harmony 
with that of his forefathers, he having served his coun- 
try with loyalty and capability upon the field of battle 
and in the halls of legislation, as well as through the 
avenues of business activity, leading to the substantial 
upbuilding and material progress of the state. 

The pioneer ancestor of the family emigrated hither 
from Ireland about the close of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, settling in Philadelphia. Thence, in 1728, Colonel 
Thomas Craig removed to Northampton county, loca- 
ting in what was afterwards known as Craig's or the 
Irish Settlement, this tract of land being the property 
of William Penn and later that of his son, Thomas 



418 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Penn. The name of Colonel Thomas Craig appears 
upon the roll of the Synod of Philadelphia for the first 
time in 1731, and by it we learn that he occupied the 
office of elder. As it was in the year 1731 that the 
Presbyterian church was organized in the settlement, 
it may reasonably be supposed that he was the original 
elder. 

Thomas Craig, son of Colonel Thomas Craig, was 
but a lad when his father came to Craig's. During his 
boyhood days he assisted in clearing the land and till- 
ing the soil, and, after attaining manhood, engaged in 
farming for himself. 

The next in line of descent was Thomas Craig, whose 
birth occurred in the year 1740. In 1771, at the break- 
ing out of the Pennamite war, he was appointed to the 
rank of lieutenant in the Pennsylvania militia, and 
during the term of his service won a reputation for 
gallant and heroic conduct. He was an active cham- 
pion of the colonies from the opening of the Eevolu- 
tionary War, and on January 5, 1776, was commis- 
sioned captain, being assigned to Colonel St. Clair's 
Pennsylvania Battalion. After several engagements 
in the Canadian campaign, he was promoted to the 
rank of major, September, 1776, and in the summer 
of the following year became Colonel of the Third 
Pennsylvania Eegiment of the line. He performed 
meritorious service under the command of Washing- 
ton in the state of New Jersey, and subsequently par- 
ticipated in the battles of Brandywine and German- 
town. In the storming of Fort Durkee, near Wilkes- 
Barre, in 1771, Captain Craig, grandfather of Colonel 
John Craig, led the van with an impetuous rush, and 
gave the first alarm by springing into the midst of the 
astonished multitude, when he commanded a company 
under Ogden. He stepped lightly in advance of his 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 419 

men, and speaking in a low tone and in friendly terms 
to the sentinel, threw him off his guard, knocked him 
down and entered the fort. Early in the Revolution- 
ary War he led a company into service under Washing- 
ton, and rose to the command of a regiment. Not 
only was he brave, but constitutionally impetuous. 
He was at Quebec, at the battles of Germantown and 
of Monmouth, and at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. 
His intrepid and humane conduct in the storming of 
Fort Durkee and preserving the prisoners from slaugh- 
ter won him the esteem of all. Though brave as either, 
in his social walk he resembled Mark Anthony rather 
than Scipio. 

Having quit the tented field, he sought excitement 
and pleasure amid the lilacs and roses with the blonde 
and brunette beauties of old Northampton. 

On the afternoon of December 12, 1777, the British 
adjutant-general, who had his headquarters directly 
opposite, called at the famous old Loxley house, at 
the corner of Second and Little Dock streets, Phila- 
delphia, and notified (Mrs.) Lydia Darrah to have fire 
and candles lighted in a certain room which he had 
appropriated for a council chamber there. ''And be 
sure," he added, ''that your family are all in bed at an 
early hour." The Darrahs were members of the So- 
ciety of Friends, and William, the husband, was a 
school teacher. Lydia obeyed instructions, doubtless 
with her husband's consent and co-operation, and at 
the appointed hour, admitted the officers, being told 
by the adjutant that he would call her when they were 
ready to go. She then withdrew to an upper chamber. 
Friend though she was, her heart sympathies could not 
be silenced, and she trembled lest this secret council 
might bring to her friends and kindred some serious 
disaster. Slipping off her shoes and gliding noiseless- 



420 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

ly down the stairs, she approached the entrance of the 
officers' room, and, placing her ear against the door, 
eagerly listened. At first she could only hear a mur- 
mur of voices ; then ensued a long conference followed 
by a deep silence, broken at last by the loud voice of an 
officer reading an order from General Howe for an 
attack upon Washington's position at White Marsh, 
on the evening of December 4. Not waiting to hear 
more she tremblingly made her way back, and had 
scarcely closed the door when the adjutant knocked. 
Pretending not to hear until he had repeated the alarm 
for the third time, she answered the summons, drows- 
ily rubbing her eyes, as though just aroused from 
sleep, and let the officers out. 

It was cold next morning, and there was snow on the 
ground ; but, making the excuse that she needed flour, 
and could not spare the servant to go for it, Lydia se- 
cured a pass and set out for Frankford, a distance of 
five miles. Eeaching the mill, and leaving her sack to 
be filled, she speeded on until near the American lines, 
when she met Lieutenant-Colonel Craig, a mounted 
scout, to whom she was well known, and who inquired 
her errand. As he was at the head of a company, she 
answered evasively, saying she was in search of her 
son, who was an officer in the American army. Then 
she added in a lower tone: ''I have something im- 
portant to say to thee." He at once dismounted and 
walking slowly beside her, received the startling in- 
formation gratefully; then assuming a careless air, 
bade her good-by, when she unceremoniously departed, 
returning to the mill for her flour and hurrying home. 

Resuming her household duties as though nothing 
unusual had occurred, she waited the outcome, calmly 
noting the departure of the British soldiers on the 
evening of December 4; listening to the distant boom- 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 421 

ing of cannon on the morning of the 5th, and three days 
later witnessing their hasty return to camp, when the 
generally disturbed surroundings told her that they 
had been repulsed. Following this reverse, a cloud of 
suspicion settled on the place, and strict inquisition 
was made to locate the spy or traitor there. It was 
whispered that he had been concealed in the Darrah 
house. The adjutant-general sent for Lydia, and, lock- 
ing the door, questioned her closely, but without elicit- 
ing any incriminating evidence. ''Thee knows," she 
said in conclusion, "that we were alone, and that all 
but myself had retired." "Yes, I do know," he re- 
plied, after a pause. ' ' And you, yourself, were asleep, 
for I had to rap loudly three times before I could 
awaken you, and you were almost dreaming when you 
came to let us out. Still it is quite plain that we were 
betrayed. Strange! Very strange!" Thus Lydia 
Darrah 's daring deed, tradition tells us, saved Wash- 
ington's army — perhaps the country — and thus she be- 
came a heroine in American history. 

On April 12, 1778, at Valley Forge, Colonel Craig 
addressed a letter, strongly appealing for clothing for 
the soldiers, this fact showing their destitute condi- 
tion in that respect. In the battle of Monmouth his 
regiment displayed unusual courage, which fact was 
attributed largely to the coolness and bravery of their 
leader, who was eminently qualified for the high posi- 
tion which he occupied. After the close of hostilities, 
and upon his return to Northampton county, in July, 
1783, Colonel Craig was appointed lieutenant. The 
following year Montgomery county was formed from 
Philadelphia, and he was appointed associate judge, 
clerk of courts, and recorder, all of which positions he 
held until 1789, a period of five years. For several 
years he was major general of the Seventh Division 



422 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

of Pennsylvania militia. In 1789 he removed to Towa- 
mensing township, but a few years previous to his 
death, which occurred in 1832, at the advanced age of 
ninety-two years, he lived with his daughter, Mrs. 
Kreamer, at Allentown. His remains were interred 
in Fairview Cemetery, Allentown. His wife, who bore 
the maiden name of Dorothy Breinig, bore him six 
children : Charles, Thomas, Eliza, Mary, Harriet, and 
William Craig. 

Thomas Craig, second son of Thomas and Dorothy 
Craig, was born at Stemlersville, Towamensing town- 
ship. Carbon county, in 1796. He attended the com- 
mon schools of the neighborhood, which in that early 
day were limited to the elementary branches, Wolfe's 
Academy, and a school in the Irish Settlement for a 
few months. About 1822 he accompanied his father to 
Lehigh Gap, Carbon county, where he was the proprie- 
tor of an hotel in the management of which he achieved 
a large degree of financial success, and subsequently 
turned his attention to agricultural pursuits and the 
lumber business, in both of which enterprises he was 
successful. He, too, was prominent in public affairs, 
and in 1828 became captain of what was known as the 
Troop of Horse in the Pennsylvania militia. Mr. 
Craig was married twice. His first wife was a Miss 
Kuntz, who bore him two sons, Thomas and Samuel. 
His second wife was Catherine Hagenbach, daughter 
of John Hagenbach, then proprietor of an hotel at 
Lehighton. Their children were: Thomas, deceased, 
who represented his district for four years in the house 
of representatives, and three years in the senate ; John, 
mentioned at length hereinafter ; Eliza, who became the 
wife of General Charles Heckman, an officer in the 
Mexican and Civil wars, and a resident of German- 
town ; Hon. Allen, for many years a leading attorney at 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 423 

Mauch Chunk, and the incumbent of the oflQce of dis- 
trict judge; William, a resident of Nebraska; Robert, 
a graduate of West Point Military Academy, and an 
officer of the regular army. Thomas, the father of 
these children, died in 1858; his wife, Catherine (Hag- 
enbach) Craig, died in 1871. 

Colonel John Craig, second son of Thomas and Cath- 
erine (Hagenbach) Craig, was born in Lehigh Gap, 
Carbon county, October 23, 1831. In boyhood he at- 
tended the schools of the district, and in 1850 went to 
Easton, where his education was completed at a pri- 
ate school conducted by Rev. John Vanderveer. He 
then became connected with his father in the lumber 
business, and after the death of the latter, in 1858, 
devoted some time to the settlement of the estate; he 
also continued the management of the business. In 
1857, at the age of twenty-six, he was elected captain 
of a cavalry company, which position he held up to 
the time of the Civil War. He was one of the first vol- 
unteers in the defense of the government, enlisting 
April 22, 1861, for three months' service, and was com- 
missioned captain of Company I, Sixth Regiment 
Pennsylvania Infantry, which took part in the military 
operations in Virginia and Maryland. On August 30, 
1861, he re-enlisted, and was commissioned captain of 
Company N, Twenty-eighth Regiment Pennsylvania 
Infantry, which was afterwards merged into Company 
C, One Hundred and Forty-seventh Regiment. Among 
the battles in which he participated were those of An- 
tietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Lookout Moun- 
tain, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold, Chattanooga, and 
the various engagements from Atlanta to the sea under 
General Sherman, including the battle of Peach Tree 
Creek. Enlisting as a captain, he was promoted suc- 
cessively to the rank of major, lieutenant-colonel, and 



424 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

colonel. He participated in the grand review in Wash- 
ington, D. C, and July 15, 1865, was honorably dis- 
charged from the service of the United States govern- 
ment in whose behalf he labored long and faithfully 
during the darkest days of its history. 

Resuming the life of a civilian. Colonel Craig formed 
a partnership with his brother in the general mercan- 
tile business under the style of J. and W. Craig, at 
Lehigh Gap, and this business relationship continued 
until 1882, when W. Craig withdrew his interest, 
after which Colonel Craig became sole proprietor. In 
addition to the management of this extensive enter- 
prise, he was also a dealer in coal, lumber and ferti- 
lizers. In 1866-67 he contracted for and built four and 
a half miles of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, 
which was in course of construction at that time. In 
1880 he became president of the Carbon Metallic Paint 
Company, while he was a director of the First National 
Bank of Slatington from the date of its organization, 
in 1875, until his death. He was a shrewd and capable 
business man, and all his transactions were character- 
ized by fairness, integrity and justice, which was the 
secret of the success he attained during his career as 
a business man. He always took a keen interest in 
every measure calculated to promote the general well 
being of the people of his native state and of the coun- 
try at large, being especially interested along educa- 
tional lines. He was particularly well versed in the 
early history of Carbon county and of the whole Lehigh 
Valley. He was for five years a school director, served 
for a number of years as postmaster of Lehigh Gap, 
and from 1884 to 1886 represented his district in the 
lower house of the state legislature. He affiliated him- 
self with the Democratic party on attaining his major- 
ity, and always supported its candidates and the meas- 





/^-ts-. 




HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 425 

ures it championed. He belonged to the Loyal Legion, 
Pennsylvania Commandery, at Philadelphia; and 
Chapman Post, No. 61, Grand Army of the Republic, 
at Mauch Chunk. 

In the fall of 1866 Colonel Craig was united in mar- 
riage to Emma Insley, daughter of Philip and Hen- 
rietta Insley, residents of the Irish Settlement, near 
Bath, Northampton county, Pennsylvania. The fol- 
lowing children were the issue of this union : Thomas, 
Charles, P. Insley, H. Tyndale, Henrietta, wife of T. 
Griffin; Mary, Allen D., and John D., deceased. 

The body of Colonel Craig lies buried in the old 
Towamensing Cemetery near Palmerton. 

Craig, Hon. Thomas B., one of the members of the 
board of commissioners of Carbon county, is the eldest 
son of the late Colonel John Craig and his wife, Emma 
(Insley) Craig. He was born at Lehigh Gap, Carbon 
county, on April 6, 1867, and received his early educa- 
tion in the public schools of Lower Towamensing town- 
ship and in those of the borough of Slatington, Lehigh 
county. Later he attended Wyoming Seminary, at 
Kingston, Pa. 

He began his business career in 1885, when, at the 
age of eighteen years, he entered the mercantile estab- 
lishment of his father at Lehigh Gap. Under his in- 
struction he also became a surveyor, and has surveyed 
much of the land in the locality in which he lives. 

Colonel Craig becoming ill in the year 1900, Thomas 
assumed active control of his extensive business inter- 
ests. In 1908 the father died, and the conduct of the 
estate was turned over to Thomas and his brother, H. 
Tyndale Craig, who continue the business under the 
style of John Craig & Company, being dealers in gen- 
eral merchandise, coal, flour and feed. 



426 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Mr. Craig has inherited much of the public spirit dis- 
played by his ancestors, and has for years been promi- 
nent in the councils of the Democracy of Carbon coun- 
ty. He served as secretary of the school board of 
Lower Towamensing township for six years, and was 
Democratic county chairman for four years. In 1898 
he was elected to membership in the state legislature, 
serving his constituents with intelligence and fidelity. 
He was chosen as a county commissioner in 1911, and 
has on several occasions represented the Democracy of 
his native county in the state conventions of the party 
and at the congressional conferences of the district. 

Mr. Craig was one of the organizers of the First 
National Bank of Palmerton, of which he is the vice- 
president and one of the board of directors. He is a 
member of the Masonic order, belongs to the Odd Fel- 
lows and to the Sons of Veterans, while being the pres- 
ident of Palmerton 's newly organized fire department. 

In September, 1889, Mr. Craig was married to Lil- 
lie J. Kreamer, youngest daughter of Dr. J. C. 
Kreamer, of Millport, Carbon county. 

Davies, George M., for many years prominently 
connected with the mining industry of the Lehigh coal 
region, and one of the most public spirited citizens of 
Lansford, was born in South Wales, January 1, 1848. 
His parents were Stephen and Sarah (Edwardes) 
Davies. During his early teens he came to America, 
locating at Harleigh, Luzerne county. Pa. He began 
life as a slate picker, later becoming a contract miner. 
For some years he lived in Hazleton, and at various 
times employed a large number of men in the oper- 
ations of that region. 

In 1883 Mr. Davies came to Lansford, where he 
achieved his greatest successes, and in the develop- 
ment and upbuilding of which place he has played a 




^.m^ 



<^^^^^^^;^---t 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 427 

leading part. For nearly twenty-one years he worked 
the Spring Tunnel mine, the oldest anthracite under- 
ground operation in the country, for the Lehigh Coal 
and Navigation Company. He also operated a number 
of other colleries for the same company during the 
twenty-seven years that he followed mining in the 
Panther Creek Valley. 

Aside from this, Mr. Davies has been a man of many 
interests and activities. He was one of the organizers 
of the Panther Valley Electric Light, Heat and Power 
Company, of which he has been president for the past 
twelve years, and was a prime mover in the establish- 
ment of the First National Bank of Lansford, being 
still a director of this institution. He also assisted in 
the organization of the American Fire Company and 
the Panther Valley Building and Loan Association. 

Mr. Davies has figured prominently in the councils 
of the Eepublican party since becoming a citizen of 
the county. He is familiarly referred to as the "Little 
Napoleon" of Carbon county politics, which sobriquet 
was conferred upon him for his aggressive disposition 
and his combative abilities. 

While living in Hazle township, Luzerne county, he 
was chosen as assessor, being the first Republican 
elected to that office in the history of the township. 
During his incumbency as chairman of the Carbon 
county Republican committee, most of the county of- 
fices were turned over by the Democrats to the Repub- 
licans. 

In 1890 he was the nominee of his party for congress 
in what was then the Eighth District. Although de- 
feated, he reduced the usual Democratic majority of 
eleven thousand to six thousand. He was also an un- 
successful candidate for the office of associate judge 
of the county. In 1892 he was elected burgess of Lans- 



428 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

ford, serving for several terms. He lias also served 
as president of town council and the school board of 
the borough, besides filling a number of other offices. 

He is a trustee of the Ashland State Hospital and of 
the East Stroudsburg State Normal School, while 
being a member of the state commission on mine caves, 
to which he was appointed by Governor Tener. 

An incident which occurred during the Spanish- 
American War serves to illustrate Mr. Davies' pa- 
triotic spirit and his well known liberality. As a re- 
sult of official red tape and confusion in the War 
Department, the Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment found 
itself without the means of procuring rations on the 
eve of its departure from Mt. Gretna for the seat of 
war. 

In this emergency, Mr. Davies, who was a visitor at 
Mt. Gretna, generously volunteered to feed the entire 
regiment at his own expense. 

This incident is related by Captain Baird H. Halber- 
stadt, of Pottsville. 

In 1870 Mr. Davies was married to Mary J. Hill, of 
Harleigh, Luzerne county. They have eight surviving 
children. 

Fraternally he is connected with the Odd Fellows, 
and is prominent in Masonic circles. He is a member 
of the Episcopal church. 

Davies, Isaac M., mine inspector of the Seventeenth 
Anthracite District of Pennsylvania, comprising the 
county of Carbon and a portion of Schuylkill, is the 
son of Stephen and Sarah (Edwardes) Davies. His 
father was an iron refiner of Glamorganshire, Wales. 

Born at Cwymavon, South Wales, in 1854, Isaac M. 
Davies crossed the Atlantic to New York at the age of 
sixteen as a cabin boy on board the Nova Scotia bark 
Kate, Captain E. J. Murphy commanding. 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 429 

Being then in quest of adventure, rather than in 
search of a permanent home, he sailed for South Amer- 
ica, having spent some time at Harleigh, Luzerne 
county, Pa., where his brother, George M. Davies, was 
located, and at other points in the coal fields. After 
leading the free life of a plainsman in Uruguay and the 
Argentine Republic for a period of nearly two years, 
he returned to his home in Wales, where he worked in 
the coal mines. 

Coming to America for a second time, he was accom- 
panied by his brother, William H. Davies, who is now 
the division superintendent of the Lehigh Valley Coal 
Company at Hazleton, Pa. At the age of twenty-five, 
Mr. Davies went to Australia, where he was engaged 
as a miner of both gold and coal for nearly a dozen 
years. Returning to the United States in 1890, after 
making a complete circle of the globe, he located perm- 
anently at Lansford, Pa., where he still lives. 

He became a mine foreman for the Lehigh Coal and 
Navigation Company, and in 1907 attained to the posi- 
tion which he now holds, being re-elected without op- 
position in 1911. Mr. Davies is the first resident of 
Carbon county yet elected to this office. He was one of 
the organizers of the corps giving first aid to the in- 
jured in the mines about Lansford, and was one of the 
original trustees of the Panther Creek Valley Hospital, 
situated at Coal Dale, Schuylkill county. 

Mr. Davies is a member of the various Masonic bod- 
ies, while being connected with the St. David 's society,^ 
of Lansford, and the Episcopal church. ^ 

He was married on April 4, 1882, to Sarah, daugh- 
ter of William Davies, in New South Wales, Australia. 
She is a native of Blaenavon, South Wales. Five of 
their eight children, George B., Minnie M., Stephen H., 
Stella G., and William W., were born in Australia. 



430 HISTOKY OF CAKBON COUNTY. 

David R., Isaac E., and Marion were born at Lansford. 
Minnie is the wife of John Corville, of Wilmington, 
Del., and Stella is married to Luke Yocum, living at 
Loag, near Reading, Pa. 

Derrick, John D., a dealer in sawed lumber and 
mine timber, at Weatherly, owner of the Lehigh Valley 
Facing Mill, of Jeanesville, Luzerne county, and oper- 
ating several farms in the Laurytown Valley, is a na- 
tive of Shoemakersville, Berks county. Pa., where he 
was born on November 23, 1846. He is the son of 
John K. Derrick, while his mother bore the maiden 
name of Mary Schlear. They were the parents of thir- 
teen children. 

In 1857 the family removed from Berks county to 
Tumbling Run, Schuylkill county, where the subject of 
this sketch grew to maturity on his father's farm. He 
learned the trade of a blacksmith, which his father had 
also followed, but after a time became a dealer in 
cattle. 

In 1872 he established himself at Hauto, Mauch 
Chunk township. Carbon county, forming a partner- 
ship with his brother-in-law, R. E. Miller, Sr., and en- 
gaging in the lumber business. He lived here for sev- 
enteen years, later residing for eleven years at Nesque- 
honing, and four at Hudsondale. While living at the 
last named place, Mr. Derrick purchased the interest of 
his partner and has since conducted the business on 
his own account with uniform success. 

For the past seven years he has lived at Weatherly. 
While lumbering has been Mr. Derrick's principal vo- 
cation, he has also shown a fondness for agricultural 
pursuits, in which his early training, coupled with 
sturdy common sense and executive ability have com- 
bined to give him a place among the leading farmers 
of this portion of the county. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 431 

In 1894 he opened the Lehigh Valley Facing Mill at 
Hazleton, recently transferring the plant to Jeanes- 
ville. He was formerly interested in a similar enter- 
prise at Hauto. 

Mr. Derrick was married in 1869 to Hannah J. Mil- 
ler, daughter of Eli T. Miller, of Schuylkill county. 
Their married life has been a happy one. 

Dreisbach, J. M., a foremost representative of the 
financial interests of Mauch Chunk, and for years 
prominently identified with the political affairs of the 
county, was born at Lockport, Northampton county, 
on January 4, 1847, the son of Solomon and Mary 
(Mummey) Dreisbach. 

The pioneer of his family in America was John Jost 
Dreisbach, who was born in Germany in the year 1721. 
He sailed for this country from Cowes, England, Sep- 
tember 20, 1743, on board the ship Lydia, of which 
James Abercrombie, of Rotterdam, was master. His 
death occurred on October 17, 1794. 

The paternal grandfather, Michael Dreisbach, was 
born April 1, 1779, and died October 15, 1868. By oc- 
cupation he was a wheelright, and engaged in farming. 
His wife bore the maiden name of Susanna Shaffer. 

Solomon Dreisbach was a native of Lehigh township, 
Northampton county, the year of his birth being 1822. 
He departed this life Aug. 14, 1880. He was trained 
for a mercantile career, but early in life became a boat- 
builder, also conducting a boatman's stable and store. 
Removing to East Mauch Chunk in 1850, he built the 
Centre House, the first hotel in that town. His wife 
was born near Berlinsville, Pa., November 9, 1828, 
being a daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Master) Mum- 
mey. Six children were born to them: James M., 
Joseph B., Franklin A., Ellen I., Mary H., the wife of 
Rev. William C. Shaffer, and Emma J., who married 
Harry Laurish. 



432 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

James Monroe Dreisbach was but three years of age 
when his parents removed to East Mauch Chunk. He 
acquired his early training in the public schools of tEat 
borough, later pursuing a business course at Philadel- 
phia. 

In 1863 he began life as a clerk in the service of the 
Hazleton Coal Company at Penn Haven, which was 
then an important coal-shipping point. Here he 
formed an acquaintance with General William Lilly, 
who was at that time in charge of the company's af- 
fairs at Penn Haven, and a warm friendship sprang up 
between the two which was only terminated by the 
death of the elder in 1893. 

In 1865 Mr. Driesbach became the shipper for 
Sharpe, Weiss & Company, and for Coxe Brothers and 
Company, miners and shippers of anthracite coal. 
Shipments were made over the Lehigh Canal from 
Mauch Chunk. 

Entering the Second National Bank of Mauch Chunk 
in the spring of 1867 as a bookkeeper, he was subse- 
quently promoted to the position of teller. In 1880 he 
was elected cashier of the bank, while from 1897 until 
1901 he served as its vice-president. In the latter year 
he became president of the institution, serving in that 
capacity until December 31, 1902, when the charter of 
the Second National Bank expired by limitation. 

Mr. Dreisbach was an active participant in the or- 
ganization of the Mauch Chunk Trust Company, which 
began business on January 1, 1903, the only institution 
of its kind in the county. He was chosen its president, 
still occupying that position. The new institution was 
to a certain degree an experiment, but under his guid- 
ance it has steadily grown stronger and more prosper- 
ous. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 433 

Since his boyhood Mr. Dreisbach's life has been 
characterized by sustained activity and usefulness. He 
was the receiver appointed to take charge of the af- 
fairs of the Miners ' Bank of Lansf ord, which failed in 
1883, and succeeded in paynig its creditors seventy- 
five per cent, of the amount of their claims, notwith- 
standing that it was at first thought there would be but 
little left to divide among the depositors of the wrecked 
institution. 

Mr. Driesbach is a director of the East Broad Gap 
Railroad and Coal Company, of G. B. Markle & Co., 
and other corporations. He is the acting executor of 
the estate of his former friend. General Lilly, the 
wealthy coal operator, and was similarly connected 
with a number of other estates. 

He has been a close student of political and economic 
problems, always manifesting a lively interest in pub- 
lic affairs. Politics with him has been an avocation 
rather than a vocation. He was, however, appointed 
as the first postmaster of East Mauch Chunk, having 
been largely instrumental in the establishment of that 
postoffice in 1870. He early became identified with 
the policies and principles of the Republican party, be- 
coming one of its most influential leaders in the county. 
Repeatedly serving as the chairman of the county com- 
mittee, he was also frequently sent as a representative 
to the state conventions of the party. 

In 1896 he was a member of the National convention 
which nominated McKinley for the Presidency at St. 
Louis, while four years later he was again a delegate 
to the convention which renominated him at Philadel- 
phia. 

He took an active part in securing the legislation 
constituting Carbon county as a separate judicial dis- 
trict, in 1901, at which time he also successfully advo- 



434 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

cated the separate establishment of the oflfices of pro- 
thonotary and clerk of courts, and of register of wills 
and recorder of deeds. 

Mr. Dreisbach is a past master of the Masonic lodge 
of Mauch Chunk, while being a past grand of the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows of that town. 

He was united in marriage to Emma Wertz, of 
Cherryville, Northampton county, on November 11, 
1869. Their only son, George Dreisbach, is secretary 
and treasurer of the Mauch Chunk Trust Company. 

Druckenmiller, Stanley F., a physician and surgeon, 
of Lansford, is the son of Wilson K. and Mary (Grim) 
Druckenmiller, of Weatherly. His father is a native of 
New Tripoli, Lehigh county, Pa. 

Stanley was born at Weatherly on September 12, 
1884. He graduated from the high school of that place 
with the class of 1901, after which he pursued a gen- 
eral course at the Hazleton Business College. Going 
to South Bethlehem, Pa., he did clerical work for the 
Bethlehem Steel Company and the Lehigh Valley Rail- 
road for four years. 

In 1906 he entered the Medico-Chirurgical College 
of Philadelphia, from which institution he was gradu- 
ated in 1910. In August, 1911, after having served for 
a year as interne at St. Luke's Hospital, South Beth- 
lehem, he opened an office at Lansford, where he is 
rapidly building up a good practise. He has already 
established a reputation for skill and ability in his pro- 
fession. 

Drumheller, Wallace, a representative of the busi- 
ness and industrial interests of Lansford, and a mem- 
ber of the board of county commissioners, was born at 
Summit Hill on April 1, 1860. He is the son of Nathan 
and Elizabeth (Heister) Drumheller. His grandfather, 
George Drumheller, was the first blacksmith employed 




rUa^^/Uu^M^ 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 435 

by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, while his 
father was for years the master machinist of the same 
corporation at Lansford. 

Wallace Drumheller was educated in the common 
schools and at the Bloomsburg State Normal School. 
Learning the trade of a machinist under the direction 
of his father, he later became the foreman of the shop 
where he served his apprenticeship. In 1891, upon the 
death of his father, he was appointed as superintend- 
ent of the various shops of the Lehigh Coal and Navi- 
gation Company, situated in Lansford. He continued 
in this position until 1908. 

In 1906, in association with Charles K. Walton, Mr. 
Drumheller established the Lansford Shirt Factory, 
which now employs about one hundred operatives. 
Formerly he also conducted a large hardware, heating 
and plumbing establishment, which, in 1909, he turned 
over to his sons, Nathan and George. 

He has been the manager of the Panther Valley Elec- 
tric Light, Heat and Power Company since its incep- 
tion, and is a director of the First National Bank of 
Lansford. For about fifteen years he was a member 
of the town council of Lansford, of which he was the 
president. 

As the candidate of the Republican party, Mr. Drum- 
heller was elected to membership on the board of coun- 
ty commissioners, in 1911. He was married in 1883 to 
Johanna, daughter of John Griffiths, of Lansford. 

Eadie, J. G., Weatherly's oldest merchant, and one 
of the most prominent citizens of that borough, is a son 
of Robert Eadie, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, 
in the year 1805. On the twenty-first of October of 
that year, Admiral Lord Nelson, commanding the Eng- 
lish fleet of the Mediterranean, defeated the combined 
fleets of France and Spain, off the coast of Cape Tra- 



436 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

falgar, in one of the greatest sea fights of history, and 
the grandfather of the subject of this sketch fought on 
the victorious side in that engagement. 

Robert Eadie emigrated to America in 1828, and 
settled in Schuylkill county, where he became a miner, 
which occupation he had followed in his native coun- 
try. He was married to Miss Margaret Hunter, of 
Pottsville, in the year 1830. She was born in Paisley, 
Scotland, in 1810, and was a first cousin of David Liv- 
ingstone, the eminent African explorer. 

Robert Eadie was killed in a mine accident at Nes- 
quehoning, July 6, 1853. 

J. G. Eadie was born December 26, 1835, at New Cas- 
tle, Schuylkill county, Pa., and in early life was a 
school teacher. Later he worked about the mines for 
several years, while in 1854 he secured a clerkship in 
the store of Packer, Douglass & Company at Nesque- 
honing. In 1857 he came to Weatherly, entering the 
mercantile establishment of W. W. Blakslee in a cler- 
ical capacity. 

From 1866 to 1869 Mr. Eadie conducted a store at 
Rockport, Lehigh township; returning to Weatherly 
he opened a general store, and by good business prac- 
tices and fair dealing soon achieved success. He was 
elected chief burgess in the year 1872, still remembered 
as the time when Weatherly, in common with many 
other localities, was devastated by small-pox, requiring 
courage and executive ability on the part of the author- 
ities to cope with the scourge. Mr. Eadie has held va- 
rious other offices of trust and responsibility, but of re- 
cent years has devoted his time more exclusively to his 
private affairs. 

He was twice married, his first wife having been 
Elizabeth Stetler, a daughter of Joseph Stetler, of 
Rockport, whom he wedded on July 3, 1861. The sur- 




David Ebbert. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 437 

viving children of this marriage are: Margaret I., 
Andrew J., Janet, who is the wife of H. E. De Pue, of 
Newark, N. J.; Robert, Bessie L., married to Daniel 
Helker, of Weatherly ; Blanche, wife of Dr. Dreibelbis, 
of Lehighton ; Grace K., who is now Mrs. John Peif er ; 
Florence, and Harriet E., the wife of William James, 
of Elizabeth, N. J. 

Mrs. Eadie died in 1895, and in 1897 Mr. Eadie was 
married to Mrs. Lydia McNeal, of Chilocothie, Ohio. 
She died early in 1913. 

Ebbert, David, who was a foremost citizen of Le- 
highton, was born in Heidelberg township, Lehigh 
county, on December 17, 1842. He was the son of Jacob 
and Mary (Straub) Ebbert. Educated in the public 
schools, he was early compelled to make his own way 
in life. 

During the spring of 1863 he came to Lehighton, 
serving in the employ of Thomas Kemerer for several 
months. At the expiration of this period he estab- 
lished himself as a dealer in flour, grain and feed, later 
also entering the livery business, which he successfully 
carried on until his death. 

In 1867 he was married to Hannah Hartz, a grand- 
daughter of Colonel Jacob Hartz, one of Carbon coun- 
ty's heroes in the war of the Revolution. Two daugh- 
ters, Mary S. and Ellen J., were born to them. The 
former become the wife of Edward H. Brannix, of 
Philadelphia, while the latter married M. S. Jordan, of 
Scranton, Pa., residing at Lehighton. 

Mr. Ebbert was connected with various local indus- 
tries and enterprises. For years he was director of the 
First National Bank of Lehighton. His death occurred 
on April 1, 1905. 

Edwards, Philip, a veteran educator and miner, now 
living at Beaver Meadow, was born in Cornwall, Eng- 



438 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

land, July 19, 1839. At the age of nine, having spent 
a few years in the Ludgvan parish school, he already 
began to earn his own way as a worker about the tin 
mines of his native country. 

When twenty years of age, he emigrated to the 
United States, locating in the Upper Peninsula of 
Michigan, where he became a copper miner. Having 
a thirst for knowledge, he saved enough from his 
earnings to enable him to pursue a course at Union 
Seminary, Ypsilanti, Mich. 

Coming to Pennsylvania in 1866, he taught school 
for thirteen years in Carbon and Luzerne counties. 
For a time he was also employed in a clerical capacity 
in the general offices of Coxe Brothers and Company, 
at Drif ton, Luzerne county. While so engaged, he did 
a useful work in fitting many of the foremen and other 
employes of this large concern to meet the educational 
requirements prescribed by the more stringent mining 
laws which had then been recently enacted. This was 
accomplished through the agency of a night school 
which he conducted. 

Mr. Edwards has held various positions in connec- 
tion with the mining industry since relinquishing his 
work as an instructor, but he still takes a lively interest 
in educational matters. He has held the offices of 
school director and street commissioner in Beaver 
Meadow, while he has been the tax collector of the 
borough since 1906. 

For more than fifty-six years he has been a member 
of the Methodist Episcopal church, and has been a 
prominent Sunday school worker. Fraternally he is 
identified with the Masons and the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows. 

In 1873 Mr. Edwards was united in marriage to S. 
Ellen, daughter of Daniel McClain, of Beaver Meadow. 
They are the parents of five surviving children. 





'£1^ 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. , 439 

Enbody, Hon. Edwin R., who was one of Carbon 
county's best known and most public spirited citizens, 
was a descendant of Henry Enbody, his great-grand- 
father, a native of France, who settled in the Mohawk 
Valley about the middle of the eighteenth century. 

His grandfather, David Enbody, who was a pioneer 
resident of Mauch Chunk, first devoted himself to agri- 
cultural pursuits near Berwick, on the Susquehanna. 
He married Eebecca Turnbach, of Sugarloaf Valley, 
Luzerne county. Their son, Josiah, the father of E. 
R. Enbody, was born near Berwick, in 1818, being 
quite young when his parents removed to Mauch 
Chunk. On reaching man's estate, he became a boat 
builder on the Lehigh Canal. He served for several 
years as the chief burgess of Mauch Chunk. 

His wife bore the maiden name of Tabitha Bayne, 
being the daughter of John Bayne, an early settler of 
Mauch Chunk, and an ark runner on the Lehigh. 

E. R. Enbody was born at Mauch Chunk on October 
11, 1844. After mastering the elementary branches of 
English learning in the public schools, he pursued a 
course of study at Dickinson Seminary, Williamsport, 
Pa. At the age of seventeen he entered the employ of 
the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company as a clerk, 
continuing so for several years. 

In 1868 he became the chief bookkeeper for W. T. 
Carter and Company, miners and shippers of coal, at 
Beaver Meadows. In association with John Martyn 
and a number of New York capitalists, he had an in- 
terest in the opening and development of the mines 
now operated by Coxe Brothers and Company, near 
Beaver Meadows. 

For eleven years Mr. Enbody lived at Weatherly, 
where he was in the service of the Lehigh Valley Rail- 
road. Returning to Mauch Chunk in 1884, he assumed 



440 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

the superintendency to the Mauch Chunk Water Com- 
pany and the Mauch Chunk Gas Company, occupying 
the former position the remainder of his life. 

For years he was active as a labor leader, and asso- 
ciated with such men as T. V. Powderly and Henry 
George. During this phase of his career, he had a 
hand in bringing about the adoption of the Australian 
ballot system in Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Enbody was elected to the office of associate 
judge of Carbon county by the Democrats in 1899, 
serving for the term of five years. In 1910 he was 
chosen to membership in the state legislature. 

Always interested in religious work, he was an elder 
of the Presbyterian church of Mauch Chunk for more 
than twenty years. 

His marriage to Cornelia D. Brodhead, daughter of 
the late Hon. A. G. Brodhead, a prominent official of 
the Lehigh Valley Eailroad at Mauch Chunk, was sol- 
emnized in 1867. She died on September 15, 1903, leav- 
ing three children : Albert B., Richard M. and Josiah 
W. Enbody. The first named is road foreman of loco- 
motives for the Central Railroad of New Jersey at 
Mauch Chunk, while his brothers are located in New 
York. 

Edwin R. Enbody died suddenly at his home on May 
21, 1912, having but a short time previously been re- 
nominated without opposition for his seat in the legis- 
lature. 

Eshleman, Dr. Edwin F., a physician and surgeon 
of Parryville, and treasurer of Carbon county, was 
born at Seiberlingsville, Lehigh coimty, on July 30, 
1865. 

Jacob Eshleman, his father, a farmer and black- 
smith, was a native of Bucks county, while his mother 
before her marriage, was Sophia Werley. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 441 

Edwin was one of a family of six children and in 
early life labored on his father's farm and at the 
forge. Having prepared himself as a teacher at the 
Kutztown State Normal School, he taught school for 
six terms. 

Entering Jefferson Medical College, he graduated 
with the class of 1893. During the same year he lo- 
cated at Parryville, where he has practised his pro- 
fession since that time. He is the only physician in 
the town, having also built up a large practice in the 
surrounding country. 

Doctor Eshleman has been a warm friend of educa- 
tion, and his previous service as a teacher has well 
fitted him for the discharge of the duties of a school 
director, which position he has filled continuously al- 
most since becoming a resident of Parryville. He has 
also been the overseer of the poor in the borough for a 
like period. 

As the candidate of the Republican party, he was 
elected to the office of county treasurer by a handsome 
majority in 1911. 

Fraternally he is allied to the Knights of Malta and 
to the Fraternal Order of Eagles, while being a mem- 
ber of the Lutheran church. 

On October 31, 1891 he was married to Lizzie, daugh- 
ter of Charles Scheirer, of Mickleys, Lehigh county. 
Their two children are Gerald and Grace Eshleman. 

Evans, Thomas E., postmaster of Audenried, is the 
son of Owen R. and Margaret Rosser Evans, the form- 
er a native of Wales, and the latter from Schuykill 
county. 

The father emigrated to America, unattended and 
alone at the age of thirteen years. He first located at 
Cumbola, Schuylkill county, later becoming a mine 
foreman at New Philadelphia, in the same district. 



442 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Coming to Tresckow, Carbon county, he held the posi- 
tion of a mine foreman for the German-Pennsylvania 
Coal Company for over twenty years. The closing 
years of his life were spent at Nanticoke, Luzerne 
county, where he died in 1890, aged 64 years. 

Thomas Evans was born at Cumbola on March 27, 
1864. Four years later his parents removed to Tresc- 
kow, where he attended school. At the age of fifteen he 
was given employment in the offices of the Lehigh and 
Wilkes-Barre Coal Company. Subsequently he be- 
came a stationary engineer, in which capacity he is still 
employed by this company. 

He had served both as an auditor and as tax col- 
lector of Banks township. His appointment as post- 
master of Audenried was made on March 30, 1899. 

On June 10, 1884, he was married to Sarah, daughter 
of Evan Cann and his wife Rebecca, of Yorktown. 
Their children are Olive V., Harry, Boy, Lillian and 
Gordon. Olive is a trained nurse, Harry a machinist, 
and Roy a plumber. Lillian and Gordon remain at 
home. 

Farrar, John K., an Audenried physician and sur- 
geon, was born at Montreal, Canada, on November 1, 
1867. His father, Rev. John Farrar, a minister of the 
Episcopal church, was a native of England, and grad- 
uated at Oxford. He was married to Mary King, of 
Sheffield, England, emigrating to Canada about 1860. 
The father died in 1905 at the age of sixty-six years. 

John King Farrar was educated at Geneva College 
and at the University of Virginia. Entering Jefferson 
Medical College, he was graduated from that institu- 
tion in 1891. 

In September of that year he located at Audenried, 
becoming the assistant of Dr. W. R. Longshore, to 
whose practise he succeeded. He is the local physician 





^-M^ 



a, <f^ fO^L^jix^ 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 443 

and surgeon of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal 
Company and of C. M. Dodson and Company, miners 
and shippers of coal, and has a large practise. 

Faust, Percy E., editor and owner of the Weatherly 
Herald, the only newspaper published in the upper end 
of Carbon county, was born on the old Faust home- 
stead, now the property of John Bittner, in Packer 
township, March 28, 1868. 

His grandfather, John Faust, who came from 
Schuylkill county in 1829, was one of the early settlers 
of Packer township. He was born in 1797, and lived 
to a ripe old age, being endearingly referred to for 
many years as "Old Daddy" Faust. 

His wife died in 1864, having borne him thirteen 
children. One of his sons, Edward, who was born in 
1839, was the father of the subject of this sketch. He 
spent his boyhood in Quakake Valley, and on reach- 
ing man's estate, was married to Elizabeth, daughter 
of Ephraim Balliet, of Packer township. The family 
made their home in Weatherly, where Mr. Faust was 
for twenty-five years employed as a blacksmith by the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. He died in 1897. 

The future owner of the Herald attended the public 
schools until his fifteenth year, when the desire to do 
something practical seized him. Accordingly, he for- 
sook the founts of learning and worked as a laborer 
for two years. He then entered the office of the Herald 
as an apprentice, learning to set type. One year later, 
being then scarcely eighteen years of age, he attained, 
through purchase, the ownership of the paper and the 
job printing business that went with it, beginning his 
career as a full-fledged newspaper man at an age when 
most boys are still attending the public schools. 

The Herald was started in 1880, by H. V. Morthimer, 
and its early career was one of many changes and 



444 ' HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

vicissitudes. Mr. Faust became its owner in 1886, 
succeeding Harvey B. Smith, now a Philadelphia news- 
paper man. Under his direction the Herald has pros- 
pered and has grown in circulation and in influence 
from year to year. 

It is now issued every Friday, and is always a wel- 
come visitor in the many homes that it reaches. Clean, 
newsy and reliable, it always reflects a spirit of op- 
timism and good cheer. It has never invaded the pri- 
vacy of the home, while filth and scandal are carefully 
excluded from its columns. 

In 1890 Mr. Faust was married to Eva, daughter of 
John and Abigail Hoover, of Weatherly. Their do- 
mestic life has been ideal and happy. Their children 
are : Robert, Ruth, Ray, Edward, Grace, Burdell, Eliza- 
beth and Theodore. Two others died in infancy. 

Mr. Faust has filled various offices of trust in the 
borough, among the number those of councilman and 
of school director. For fifteen years he served as bor- 
ough treasurer, while he has also been secretary of the 
board of trade since its organization in 1898, and he 
is the treasurer of the Anthracite Building and Loan 
Association. 

He is active in the councils of the Democratic party 
in the county, while he and his family are members of 
the Methodist church. 

Fenner, Joseph A., postmaster of Weissport, was 
born at Fennersville, now called Sciota, Monroe coun- 
ty, Pa., May 4, 1856. His grandfather was Hon. Henry 
Fenner, who represented the legislative district to 
which Monroe county then belonged in the general as- 
sembly of Pennsylvania. He also held various other 
offices of public trust and was one of Monroe county's 
most prominent men. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 445 

Joseph Fenner, the father of the subject of this 
sketch, was born in Monroe county and built and oper- 
ated a large tannery at Fennersville. He was post- 
master of his native town for more than fifty years, 
while he also enjoyed the distinction of being elected 
to the office of county treasurer on the Republican tick- 
et, notwithstanding that Monroe, then as now, was 
strongly Democratic. 

In early life he was married to Susan Marsh, daugh- 
ter of Amos Marsh, a native of Monroe county. Their 
children were: Josiah, William, Calvin, Theodore, 
Jerome, Milton, Erwin, Frank E., Joseph A. and Effie 
J., who is the wife of Joseph Strohl, of Cementon, Pa. 
Four others died in infancy. 

The family removed to Weissport, Carbon county, 
in 1871, where the father conducted the Weissport 
House until his death, which occurred September 1, 
1875. His widow died in 1907, being aged nearly nine- 
ty years. 

Joseph A. Fenner received a public school education 
and at the age of seventeen began life as a clerk in the 
general store of Lewis Weiss, at Weissport. 

Later he entered the forwarding office of the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad at Packerton, where he remained for 
thirteen years. For three years he had charge of a 
section of the auditing department in the company's 
offices at Mauch Chunk. 

In 1890 Mr. Fenner relinquished his position with 
the railroad company to open a general store at Weiss- 
port, which he conducted until 1906, when he disposed 
of the business to George B. Begel. 

Mr. Fenner was appointed postmaster of Weissport 
by President McKinley in 1897, having held the office 
continuously since that time. He has served as a 
member of Weissport 's town council a number of 



446 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

terms and has several times been elected to the office 
of chief burgess. For years he was a prominent figure 
at Republican county conventions, while he has repre- 
sented his party at district and state gatherings on 
various occasions. He is unmarried. 

Freyman, Ira E., a Weatherly physician, was born 
at Tanner sville, Monroe county, Pa., February 17, 
1880. His grandfather, Edward Freyman, whose birth 
occurred in 1828, is a native of East Penn township. 
Carbon county, where, for many years, he conducted a 
farm. He was married to Rebecca Ruch, and their 
only child was Lafayette Freyman, who was born De- 
cember 26, 1851. 

Lafayette Freyman was united in marriage to Miss 
Rebecca Steigerwalt, of West Penn township, Schuyl- 
kill county. He was a carpenter, and at the age of 
eighteen entered the employ of the Lehigh Valley Rail- 
road Company at Packerton. Subsequently he re- 
moved to Tannersville, where he found employment at 
his trade. In 1882 the family came to Weatherly, and 
Mr. Freyman spent all but a few of his remaining 
years in the service of the Lehigh Valley company. 
For a short period he had charge of his father's farm 
in East Penn township. He died on October 26, 1908. 

The children of Lafayette Freyman and his wife 
were Harvey, Lillian, Ira and Calvin. The two first- 
named died on the same day of diphtheria ; Calvin was 
for some years a machinist at the Washington Navy 
Yard, and is now a veterinary surgeon at Washington. 

Ira Freyman received his early training in the 
schools of Weatherly and Lehighton, graduating from 
the high school of the last named place in 1896. In 
1897 he completed the course of study offered by the 
American Business College, of Allentown, after which 
he taught school for a number of years. He was em- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 447 

ployed as a clerk by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Com- 
pany at South Bethlehem for a year, and then entered 
the Medico-Chirurgical College at Philadelphia. 
While there he was president of the athletic association 
and of the Phi-Rho Sigma Fraternity. He graduated 
with the class of 1907. 

Doctor Freyman served for a year as the assistant 
of Dr. R. Truckenmiller, of Freeland, after his gradua- 
tion, and then opened an office in Weatherly. He has 
disproved the old adage that a prophet has no honor 
in his own country, because his already large practice 
is steadily growing. 

Mr. Freyman was married to Elva S. Hunter, a 
daughter of the late J. W. Hunter, of Weatherly, on 
November 24, 1905. Their only child, Gordon C, was 
born March 10, 1907. 

Mr. Freyman is a member of the Reformed church, 
and belongs to the Knights of Malta and to the Pa- 
triotic Order Sons of America. 

Freyman, William G., senior member of the law firm 
of Freyman, Thomas and Branch, of Mauch Chunk, is 
frequently referred to as the Nestor of the Carbon 
county bar. He is the son of George and Catherine 
(Kistler) Freyman, both natives of Pennsylvania. His 
father was a farmer and carpenter, also conducting a 
general store. He spent his declining years in Mahon- 
ing township where he died in 1849. 

Both Jacob Freyman and John Kistler, the grand- 
parents of W. G. Freyman, were natives of Northamp- 
ton county, being descended from German immigrants 
who came to Pennsylvania at a very early day. 

W. G. Freyman was born in Mahoning township on 
July 4, 1838. He received a high school education, and 
taught school for five terms. During the war of the 
Rebellion he served as orderly sergeant of Company 



448 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

G, One Hundred and Seventy-sixth Regiment, Penn- 
sylvania Volunteer Infantry. At the expiration of his 
term of service he recruited a company of which he was 
commissioned lieutenant; but before it was mustered 
into service, the war closed, and he returned home. 

Becoming a civil engineer, Mr. Freyman followed 
that calling for a dozen years, also engaging in mer- 
chandising. 

Entering the office of General Charles Albright at 
Mauch Chunk, in 1871, he began the study of law, being 
admitted to the bar in 1873. Under the firm name of 
Albright and Freyman, he became the partner of his 
former preceptor, which relation was severed by the 
death of the General, in 1880. This firm participated 
in the celebrated Mollie Maguire trials. 

After practising alone for several years, Mr. Frey- 
man formed a partnership with James Kiefer, now a 
prominent attorney of Seattle, who had been a student 
in his office. Upon the retirement of Mr. Kiefer from 
the firm, at the expiration of five years, Mr. Freyman 
became associated with Horace Heydt, also a former 
student of his, under the name of Freyman and Heydt. 
Later, Eugene 0. Nothstein, a nephew of the senior 
member of the firm was taken into partnership, alter- 
ing the title to Freyman, Heydt and Nothstein. Mr. 
Freyman had also been his preceptor. 

In September, 1901, Mr. Heydt was elevated to the 
bench of Carbon county. From this time forth until 
the spring of 1912, when Mr. Nothstein died, the prac- 
tise of the firm was conducted under the name of Frey- 
man and Nothstein. Since then, Mr. Freyman has 
taken William G. Thomas and Benjamin Branch into 
partnership with himself. The practise of the firm, 
general in character, has embraced a wide range of 
important cases, and has been more extensive, perhaps, 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 449 

than that of any other in the county. Special attention 
has been given to questions involving original land 
titles both in Carbon and adjoining counties. 

Speaking of Mr. Freyman individually, he has es- 
tablished a well deserved reputation as a safe and sa- 
gacious counsellor, and his long experience has made 
him one of the most reliable lawyers of the Lehigh 
Valley. 

In addition to his legal business, he is interested in a 
number of industrial and other enterprises. He is the 
vice-president of the Mauch Chunk Trust Company, 
while being a director of the Prince Manufacturing 
Company and president of the Carbon Metallic Paint 
Company. A supporter of the principles advocated by 
the Eepublican party, he has never sought nor held a 
political office. 

In 1865 he was married to Matilda, daughter of 
George Gilbert, of Mahoning township. They have no 
surviving children. 

Gangwer, Harry L., proprietor of the Verzi House 
at Weatherly, was born in that town on May 18, 1868. 
He is the son of Samuel Gangwer, Sr., one of the oldest 
residents of Weatherly, and the family of which he is 
a representative has been established in Pennnsylvania 
for many generations. 

After leaving school Mr. Gangwer learned the trade 
of a moulder, which he followed for about nine years 
in the shops of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company 
at Weatherly. Later he pursued his calling at Plain- 
field and at High Bridge, N. J., and at Lewistown and 
South Bethlehem, Pa. In 1904 he returned to Weath- 
erly to take charge of the Verzi House, becoming the 
owner of the property through purchase in 1910. 

Mr. Gangwer was united in marriage to Gertrude, a 
daughter of William Buck, of Weatherly, on February 



450 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

1, 1894. The pair have three children : Harry L., Ed- 
ward B., and Fern G. Gangwer. 

Mr. Gangwer is an enthusiastic hunter and fisher- 
man, and has been a loyal supporter of the Republican 
party. 

Gangwer, Samuel W., steward of the almshouse of 
the Middle Coal Field Poor District at Laurytown, is 
descended from a family that has lived in America 
since early Colonial times. His great-grandfather, 
Mathias Gangwer, came to Quakake Valley, near Tam- 
anend, from Lehigh county. He was a large land- 
holder and lumberman. 

Jesse, son of Mathias Gangwer, was born in Lehigh 
county, following the trade of a carpenter. He was 
married to Mary Seip, of Orwigsburg, Schuylkill coun- 
ty. One of his sons, Samuel Gangwer, Sr., was born 
in Lehigh township, Carbon county, Feb. 26, 1832. 
When 20 years of age he married Susan, daughter of 
Isaac Harleman, of Rockport, with whom he had 
twelve children, ten of whom survive: Edward, Ida, 
wife of Hamilton Ballentine; Frank, Samuel, Benja- 
min, Herbert, Harry, Robert, Sterling and Warren. 

Mr. Gangwer was successively a lumberman and a 
boatman on the Lehigh Canal. In 1856 he entered the 
employ of the Beaver Meadow Railroad Company as 
a brakeman, soon becoming an engineer, serving in that 
capacity for twelve years, during which time the Bea- 
ver Meadow Railroad Company was absorbed by the 
Lehigh Valley. 

For a number of years he conducted the White Swan 
Hotel and the farm connected therewith, at Hudson- 
dale. This was one of the way-houses on the Lehigh 
and Susquehanna turnpike, leading from Berwick to 
Easton. The old hotel is now in ruins. The remaining 
years of his activity Mr. Gangwer spent in the employ 







(^Z^ZX^^^^t>^^^_ 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 451 

of the Lehigh Valley Company at Weatherly and in the 
conduct of a farm which he purchased on the outskirts 
of the town. He is now living retired at Weatherly. 

Samuel W. Gangwer, Jr., was born at Weatherly 
Sept. 28, 1862. He received his education in the schools 
of Packer township and of Weatherly. At the age of 
eighteen he entered the shops of the Lehigh Valley 
Company at Weatherly and learned the boilermaker 's 
trade. Previous to this time he worked on his father's 
farm. Having followed his trade for six years, Mr. 
Gangwer, in association with his brother, R. B. Gang- 
wer, opened a meatmarket in Weatherly under the firm 
name of Gangwer Brothers, continuing in this business 
for sixteen years. 

He was elected to the office of director of the Mid- 
dle Coal Field Poor District in 1898, and was re-elected 
in 1901. In 1902 he was chosen to fill his present posi- 
tion as steward of the almshouse and to conduct the 
immense farm which the district owns and operates at 
Laurytown. This is a position requiring patience, tech- 
nical knowledge and executive ability, but Mr. Gang- 
wer has easily met these requirements and has given 
the people of the district a faithful, business-like ad- 
ministration. The farm which he oversees is composed 
of 781 acres, 350 acres of which is under cultivation. 
During the year ending December 31, 1909, the pro- 
ducts of the farm were valued at $10,485.66, while the 
profits accruing therefrom aggregated $4,354.98. 
Fifty head of cattle and ten horses are maintained on 
the farm. 

The average number of inmates at the almshouse is 
195, many of whom are feeble-minded and insane. 

Mr. Gangwer is the owner of a farm near Weatherly 
upon which the model orchard of the State Department 
of Agriculture for the upper end of Carbon county is 
situated. 



452 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

On November 12, 1889 he was married to Miss Amiie 
M. Eoth, of Weatherly. She is the matron of the insti- 
tution over which her husband presides, and, as may be 
imagined, her life is one filled with many duties and 
problems. 

Mr. and Mrs. Gangwer are the parents of these chil- 
dren : Russel, Jesse, Myrtle, Grace, Helen and Samuel. 
Russel and Jesse are products of the West Chester 
State Normal School; the former is assistant cashier 
of the First National Bank of Weatherly, while the 
latter is a school teacher at Rockport. 

Geiser, Joseph F., secretary and manager of the Car- 
bon Transit Company, residing at Flagstaff Heights, 
Mauch Chunk, is the son of Peter and Mary (Hoover) 
Geiser. 

The father was born near Smithsburg, Md., in 1826. 
Reared on a farm, he early experienced the hardships 
and drudgery which were the inseparable concomitants 
of rural life at that time. Being of an inventive turn of 
mind, he experimented with labor-saving devices, and 
in 1854 perfected the first threshing machine which 
effectually separated the grain from the straw. So 
thoroughly did this machine work that its early sales- 
men offered a dollar a piece for every kernel that was 
found in the straw after it had gone through. 

The young inventor was one of the leading spirits in 
the organization of the Geiser Manufacturing Com- 
pany, the output of which has reached several million 
dollars annually, constituting the largest industry of 
Waynesboro, Franklin county, Pa. He was one of the 
small group of men who made this little city an indus- 
trial Utopia, where prosperity and well-being are per- 
haps as thoroughly diffused as in any similar commu- 
nity in the United States. 

Joseph F. Geiser was born at Greencastle, Pa., Feb- 
ruary 8, 1867. He received his elementary training in 



HISTOEY OF CAKBON COUNTY. 453 

the common schools and finished his general education 
under a private tutor, being also a graduate of the 
Dallas (Texas) Business College. In 1888 he com- 
pleted a special course in chemistry and electrical en- 
gineering at Johns Hopkins University, later studying 
electrical machinery in a practical way in a number of 
large manufacturing establishments in Baltimore. He 
also mastered the trade of a machinist in the works 
founded by his father. 

In 1889, having assisted in the building of an electric 
light plant and street railway at Bay Ridge, Md., he 
managed the property for a short time, after which he 
went to Richmond, Va., for the purpose of making a 
study of its electric railway system, then the largest 
of its kind in the country. Subsequently he had charge 
of the electrical department of the street railway sys- 
tem of Dallas, Texas. In 1891 Mr. Geiser returned to 
Pennsylvania and organized by popular subscription 
the Waynesboro Electric Light and Power Company, 
building the plant and becoming the manager of this 
company. Twelve years later this property was ac- 
quired by the Chambersburg, Greencastle and Waynes- 
boro Street Railway Company, of which Mr. Geiser 
was one of the promoters, becoming the electrical en- 
gineer and superintendent of both utilities, still re- 
garded as models of their kind. 

Resigning this position in 1908, he was influential 
in the organization of the Carbon Transit Company, 
which took over the property of the Carbon Street 
Railway Company, coming to Mauch Chunk and as- 
suming the place which he now holds. 

His policy has been to give the public good, safe and 
reliable service, thus strengthening the property at its 
weakest point. This has resulted in making the com- 
pany's securities desirable to investors. He has la- 



454 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

bored intelligently and enthusiastically for the up- 
building of Mauch Chunk as a summer resort. 

Mr. Geiser was the first to build a permanent and 
modern residence at the Flag Staff, on the mountain 
above Mauch Chunk. He was married in 1895 to Mar- 
garet J. Bender, of Harwood, N. D. Their children 
are: Lois, Ruth, Frank and Virginia. 

Mr. Geiser has been a close student of the advances 
made in the application of electrical energy to the vari- 
ous utilities, and has become an authority in this field. 
His connection with electric railways dates back to 
their beginning. He is a member of the American 
Institute of Electrical Engineers. 

Always active in literary and educational work, he 
is also a vocalist and musical director of acknowledged 
ability, belonging to that class of men, who, while striv- 
ing for efficiency in their calling, do not lose sight of 
the higher and better things which life has to offer. 

Gerhard, Jefferson J., proprietor of the Gerhard 
Homestead Farm, and tax collector of Packer town- 
ship, is a grandson of Daniel Gerhard, one of the orig- 
inal settlers of Quakake Valley. Solomon Gerhard, 
one of the six sons of this pioneer, was born in what is 
now Packer township on May 1, 1828. He followed 
farming and lumbering all his life. His wife bore the 
maiden name of Matilda Romig, being also a native of 
Quakake Valley. The following children were born to 
them: Lydia A., the wife of David Wetzel, of Allen- 
town ; Franklin B., deceased ; Ellen M., wife of Stephen 
Gerhard, of Packer township; Jefferson, Wallace T., 
of Tamaqua ; Hannah M., the wife of T. L. Jenkins, of 
East Mauch Chunk, and Maggie C, who married Oli- 
ver Walbert, of Delano, Schuylkill county. The fa- 
ther died July 26, 1910. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 455 

Jefferson J. Gerhard was born on the old homestead 
in Quakake Valley on March 17, 1864. At the age of 
seventeen he entered the general store of his brother 
Franklin, at Weatherly, as a clerk, continuing so for 
a period of three years. Returning to his old home, he 
purchased the farm in the spring of 1893, and has con- 
ducted it in harmony with the most approved modern 
methods since that time. 

Mr. Gerhard has for years been the leading potato 
grower in the upper portion of Carbon county, his an- 
nual crop averaging several thousand bushels. He is 
also a dealer in agricultural implements, fertilizers and 
farm machinery. 

He has filled the office of tax collector of the town- 
ship continuously since 1888, with the exception of two 
terms. He participated in the organization of the 
Packer Township Telephone Company, of which he is 
now the secretary. 

On December 29, 1883, he was married to Sophia, 
daughter of John Romig, of Packer township. Their 
children are : Eugene C, of Weatherly ; Elmer P., de- 
ceased; Leon W., Edna R., the wife of Roland Hinkle; 
Russel G. and Alvin M. 

Mr. Gerhard, in 1910, built a fine home, containing 
all modern conveniences. He is a believer in the prin- 
ciples of Democracy, and is a member of the Reformed 
church. 

Gerhard, Jonas, a retired farmer of Quakake Valley, 
and the oldest resident of that portion of the county, 
was born in Lausanne township, Northampton county, 
now Packer township. Carbon county, on February 3, 
1823. He is a grandson of Stephen Gerhard, who with 
his son, Daniel, came to Quakake Valley from beyond 
the Blue mountains, about the year 1790. The elder 
Gerhard, who was one of the first settlers of this val- 



456 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

ley, cleared a farm which has since been divided, and 
which is now owned by William Reed and Joseph 
Horn. 

Jonas, the son of Daniel and Mary (Heil) Gerhard, 
began life as the owner of the farm on which his grand- 
father had located. His mother was a daughter of 
Daniel Heil, one of the two first settlers of Quakake 
Valley. In those days, practically every farmer of the 
locality was a lumberman, as well, and Mr. Gerhard 
was no exception to the rule, selling sawed lumber and 
mine timber in large quantities. 

He married Elizabeth, the daughter of Jacob Bac- 
hart, and, when about forty years of age, he removed 
to Mahanoy City, Schuylkill county. At the expiration 
of a few months, however, he returned to Packer town- 
ship, purchasing the farm on which he has now lived 
for nearly half a century. He also became possessed 
of various other tracts in the township, and was for 
years a large land owner. Exceptionally well pre- 
served for one of his advanced age, he has been quite 
ablebodied until recent years. Even to-day, at ninety, 
he is a splendid marksman, handling a rifle with sur- 
prising accuracy and precision. 

The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Gerhard : John H. and Annie, the wife of David Ger- 
hard, of Packer township; Caroline, the widow of 
David Kerschner, of Tamaqua ; William, also living at 
Tamaqua; Simon P., of Packer township; Catharine, 
who married George Hinkle, deceased; Asa, who died 
when a youth; Joel G., living in the west; Amanda, 
wife of Oliver Koch, of Freeland ; Austin, of Weather- 
ly, and Allen, of Packer township. Two others died in 
infancy. Mrs. Gerhard died early in 1913. 

Mr. Gerhard cast his first ballot for President Polk, 
in 1844, journeying to Weatherly, which was then the 




Emery Getz. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 457 

only polling place in Lausanne township, for that pur- 
pose. The voters of Rockport came to Weatherly in 
a large wagon, drawn by four sturdy oxen, on this oc- 
casion. For more than a generation he served as a 
school director of Packer township, and at various 
times he held other township offices. During nearly 
the whole of his life he has been connected with St. 
Matthew's Lutheran and Reformed church, located 
near his home. Formerly he led the singing of this 
congregation. The Sunday school of this church also 
received his encouragement and support. 

Mr. Gerhard is one of the few who can recall seeing 
Halley's comet on its visit seventy-seven years ago. 

Getz, Emery, conducting a general store in Penn 
Forest township, postmaster of Albrightsville, and in- 
terested in a number of industrial enterprises in that 
portion of the county, was born in Kidder township. 
Carbon county, October 13, 1853. He is the son of 
William and Elizabeth (Serf ass) Getz, the former of 
whom was a native of Chestnut Hill township, Monroe 
county, where his birth occurred on March 31, 1824. 
When about twenty-five years of age the elder Getz 
came to Kidder township to engage in the lumbering 
business, also keeping the hotel at Albrightsville for a 
period of fifteen years or more. He died on Novem- 
ber 5, 1910. 

Emery Getz is one of a family of fifteen children, 
eight of whom survive. He spent his early life in his 
father's employ, and in 1888 established a store at 
Albrightsville. Seven years later he removed across 
the line into Penn Forest township, continuing the 
business in his present location. In addition to this 
he has dealt in lumber and mine timber, and has oper- 
ated a plant for the manufacture of barrel staves. 



458 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

He has held various offices in the gift of the people 
of Kidder and Penn Forest townships, and was elected 
as a member of the board of county auditors on the 
Democratic ticket in 1899. Since then he has twice 
been an unsuccessful candidate for the nomination for 
county treasurer, while receiving the loyal support of a 
large circle of friends and acquaintances. He has been 
the postmaster of Albrightsville for many years, also 
being the owner of a fine farm at Meckesville. 

Mr. Getz was married on April 21, 1876, to Malinda 
S., daughter of Paul Smith and his wife Elizabeth, of 
Trochsville, Towamensing township. Their only child 
is Elizabeth, the wife of Albert Henning, of Penn For- 
est township. 

Ginder, Philip, who was one of Carbon county's 
grand old men and one of the most interesting person- 
alities in eastern Pennsylvania, was a grandson of 
Philip Ginder who came to America from Holland 
about the year 1745, and who achieved lasting fame by 
his accidental discovery of anthracite coal on Sharp 
mountain, near Summit Hill, in 1791. 

Mr. Ginder 's maternal grandfather was Philip Dau- 
benspeck, who served as a soldier under Washington 
during the Revolutionary War. 

Philip Ginder, the pioneer, had two sons, Philip and 
Jacob. Philip Ginder, the subject of this sketch, was 
born August 16, 1820, and was one of the eleven chil- 
dren of Jacob Ginder, who, in the year 1825, came to 
Mahoning Valley from West Penn township, Schuylkill 
county, where he followed the business of making mill 
stones and also conducted a farm. 

At the age of sixteen Mr. Ginder was apprenticed 
to learn the carpenter trade, which vocation he follow- 
ed for many years. Among the more important build- 
ings he helped to construct was Carbon county's first 
court house. 




i*HILlP GiNDER. 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 459 

Mr. Ginder subsequently became a boat builder, and 
ranked as the best on the Lehigh Canal. He became 
well-to-do, but met with a severe reversal through the 
flood of 1862, which wrought great havoc along the 
Lehigh, sweeping away his lumber and boat yards at 
Penn Haven, and the boats in course of construction, 
as well as his home at Weissport, causing a loss 
amounting to thousands of dollars. Undaunted by his 
misfortune, and still being in the prime of life, he im- 
mediately began to recoup his losses by helping to 
build the Lehigh Valley and the Lehigh and Susque- 
hanna Railroads into the heart of the coal regions, and 
later served successively as roadmaster for both cor- 
porations, retiring from active service about the year 
1890. 

On December 5, 1847, Mr. Ginder was united in 
marriage to Rebecca, daughter of Peter Steckel, of 
Egypt, Lehigh county. The following children were 
born to them : Carlotta, widow of Thomas Brodhead, 
of Philadelphia ; Sarah E., deceased, who was married 
to G. W. Miller, Sr., of Weatherly; John, deceased; 
Washington, of Philadelphia; Rosa R., wife of Frank 
Snyder, of East Mauch Chunk ; Eliza J., wife of John 
Maltman, of Vineland, N. J. ; Emma M., wife of J. W. 
Slocum, of Philadelphia; David P., of Rockport; 
Thomas, deceased; Grant De W., of New York, and 
Helen M. Schlauch, of Allentown. 

The family lived for many years at Rockport, Car- 
bon county. Mr. Ginder spent his declining years at 
the home of his daughter, Mrs. Frank Snyder, retain- 
ing his mental and physical vigor in a remarkable de- 
gree to the end. He took pardonable pride in the fact 
that one of his grandfathers was the discoverer of the 
mineral which transformed Carbon county from a wil- 
derness to a community teeming with industry and 



460 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

happy homes, as well as adding so largely to the ma- 
terial well-being and comfort of millions of his fellow- 
men, while the other helped to free the country from 
foreign tyranny and oppression. 

Mr. Ginder departed this life on January 24, 1912, 
in the ninety-second year of his age. His wife died on 
May 8, 1907, aged 79 years. 

Gray, George E., a leading member of the bar of 
Carbon county, and a former district attorney, is a 
native of Franklin county. Pa. He is the son of George 
W. and Margaret E. (Albert) Gray, the former born 
in Maryland and the latter in Virginia. 

George E. Gray received his early training in the 
public schools of Fairview, Maryland, subsequently 
graduating from the state normal school at Shippens- 
burg, Pa. Later he taught school and pursued a spe- 
cial course at the University of Pennsylvania, with a 
view to preparing himself for admission to the bar. 
He studied law in the offices of Craig & Loose, at 
Mauch Chunk, and was admitted to practise in 1899. 

In 1900 Mr. Gray purchased the Mauch Chunk Daily 
Times, and the Mauch Chunk Coal Gazette, being both 
editor and proprietor of these journals for nearly ten 
years. In 1908 the ownership of both papers was, 
through purchase, transferred to James Boyle. 

Mr. Gray was elected to the office of district attorney 
of the county in 1904, being re-elected three years later. 
He is well-known in political circles, and has been 
chairman of the Republican county committee for a 
number of years. His home is at Lehighton, where he 
is active in various fields of endeavor. 

He is a director of the First National Bank of that 
place, and is prominent in the affairs of Zion's Re- 
formed church, having been the superintendent of the 
Sunday school of that organization for fifteen consecu- 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 4.QI 

tive years. This school is one of the strongest and best 
conducted in the entire county. He is a member of the 
Masonic fraternity and of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows. 

Mr. Gray was united in marriage to Anzionetta A., 
daughter of William H. and Susan Montz, of Lehigh- 
ton, in 1895. Their children are : Margaret S., Char- 
lotte A., and William G. Gray. 

Graul, P. M., lawyer, publisher and manufacturer, 
of Lehighton, is descended from German ancestors, 
who settled in Philadelphia and Lehigh counties during 
the early years of the nineteenth century. Later the 
family was established in Montgomery county. 

Levi Graul, the grandfather of P. M. Graul, was a 
native of Lehigh county, where he followed the voca- 
tion of a farmer, subsequently removing to Montgom- 
ery county. His son, Henry Graul, was a school 
teacher, farmer and civil engineer. He was married 
to Esther A. Dotts, and their children were Esther J., 
the wife of Jacob R. Allebach, of Montgomery county, 
and Philip M. 

P. M. Graul was born January 16, 1870, at Hoppen- 
ville, Montgomery county. Having received a public 
school education, he graduated from East Stroudsburg 
State Normal School in 1895. He also spent several 
years at Ursinus and Muhlenberg Colleges. He then 
taught school for a number of years, after which he 
entered Dickinson Law School, from which he 
was graduated with the class of 1901. On June 11 of 
the same year he was admitted to the bar of Carbon 
county, and began the practice of his profession in Le- 
highton. 

In 1902 he acquired through purchase the owner- 
ship of the Advocate, one of Carbon county's valued 
weekly newspapers, published at Lehighton, which he 
still conducts. 



462 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Mr. Graul was one of the organizers of the Lehigh- 
ton Lace Company, which was incorporated in 1905 
with a capital stock of $150,000. He is secretary-treas- 
urer and general manager of this concern, one of the 
best industries in the borough, paying out $2,500 to 
$3,000 in weekly wages. 

He was borough solicitor of Lehighton for seven 
years, while in 1904 he was the Democratic candidate 
for the legislature from Carbon county, but was de- 
feated. He is a member of the Masonic order, and of 
various other fraternal organizations, besides belong- 
ing to the fire department of the borough, being con- 
nected with Engine Company No. 1. 

P. M. Graul was married to Mary, daughter of Eeu- 
ben Fenstermacher, for many years a prominent busi- 
ness man of Lehighton, on June 14, 1897. Three sons, 
Henry, Carl, and Donald, have been born to them. 

Grenfell, J. Francis, paymaster of Coleraine colliery, 
owned by the A. S. Van Wickle estate, and one of the 
oldest operations in the Lehigh region, was born in 
Cornwall, England, on January 22, 1871. 

Thomas Grenfell, his father, was a copper miner in 
Cornwall, dying while still in the prime of life. In 
1881 his widow, who bore the maiden name of Mary 
Jane Uren, with her five children, emigrated to the 
United States, establishing her home at Beaver Mea- 
dow, Pa., where she reared her family. 

At the age of eleven years, Francis began life as a 
slate picker in the breaker at Coleraine, continuing 
about the mines until his nineteenth year. 

While his educational advantages were necessarily 
very limited, he nevertheless made the most of his op- 
portunities ; by applying himself to study at nights and 
during his spare moments, he acquired the essentials of 
a good English education. Leaving home he went to 





/ X 



HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 463 

Redington, Northampton county, Pa., where he per- 
formed clerical work in the general store of W. T. Car- 
ter & Company for a period of four years. 

Returning to Beaver Meadow at the expiration of 
that time, he entered the main office of Coleraine col- 
liery, which was then owned and operated by the same 
firm with whom he had been at Redington, as a book- 
keeper. He was promoted to the position which he now 
holds in 1898. 

Two years earlier than this he wedded Aurelia, 
daughter of John and Mary Harvey, of Hazleton. Mr. 
Harvey is the superintendent of the colliery at Cole- 
raine; he is noted for his large-heartedness and other 
fine personal traits. 

Mr. and Mrs. Grenfell are the parents of two chil- 
dren — Richard, who was born August 15, 1902, and 
Mary, whose birth occurred on August 21, 1908. They 
are active members of the Methodist church. 

While Mr. Grenfell is of a home-loving disposition, 
he is also a man of public spirit. He has served as a 
councilman and as a school director of Beaver Meadow. 
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 

Gruber, William H., now living in retirement at Pal- 
merton, is a son of Joseph Gruber, who was for many 
years one of the prominent citizens of Polk township, 
Monroe county. His mother, before her marriage, was 
Mary Heiney. 

William H. Gruber is one of a family of eleven chil- 
dren, and was born in Polk township, Monroe county, 
August 9, 1849. He was educated in the public schools 
and at Broadheadsville Academy. He learned the 
trade of a shoemaker, but began life as a school teach- 
er, following that vocation for several years. 

In 1874 he came to Lehigh Gap, Carbon county, en- 



464 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

tering the employ of J. &. W. Craig, conducting a large 
mercantile establishment at that place. He remained 
with this firm for twelve years, and then engaged in 
business on his own account, opening a general store at 
Lehigh Gap, which he conducted for a number of 
years. Later he bought a farm, situated where the 
town of Palmerton now stands. In addition to his in- 
terest in this farm Mr. Gruber for a time conducted a 
meat market at Bethlehem, where he then lived. Re- 
turning to Lower Towamensing township in 1901, he 
took up his residence on the farm, and opened Green- 
wood Grove, which has grown to be one of the beauty 
spots of Palmerton. 

In 1909 he disposed of his farm to the Palmer Land 
Company, and he is now living in an elegant home in 
that part of Palmerton known as the Reservation. 

Mr. Gruber has been a member of the board of edu- 
cation of Lower Towamensing township, and has been 
its secretary for several years. In his capacity as a 
school director he was largely instrumental in the es- 
tablishment of the township high school at Palmerton, 
a move that was not universally popular from the 
start, but which is now more generally appreciated. 
He is a member of the Knights of Malta, and attends 
the United Evangelical church. 

In 1874 Mr. Gruber was united in marriage to Sarah 
E. Searfoss, a daughter of Robert Searfoss and his 
wife Susannah. Their only child, Mattie E., is the wife 
of Stuart Prutzman, of Palmerton. 

Haydon, James C, who for many years was one of 
the best known coal operators of the anthracite region, 
and the founder of the Jeanesville Iron Works, one of 
the leading industrial enterprises in this portion of the 
state, is now leading a life of retirement at Jeanesville, 
Pennsylvania. 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 465 

He is a native of Philadelphia, where his birth oc- 
curred on December 5, 1833, and he was educated at 
Burlington College, Burlington, New Jersey, where 
he pursued a scientific course. Subsequently to his 
graduation, he assisted in the building of the North 
Penn Kailroad in the capacity of a civil engineer. The 
road, extending from Philadelphia to Bethlehem, and 
now a part of the system of the Philadelphia and Read- 
ing Railway, was completed in 1855. 

After a year's service as an executive officer for the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company at Mauch Chunk, he 
assumed the superintendency of the Buck Mountain 
Coal Company, at Rockport, Carbon county, where he 
remained for a period of ten years. Here, amid the 
wild grandeur of the mountains, he spent the happiest 
days of his life, and he has never ceased to look back 
to his residence in this lovely spot with the fondest 
recollection. 

The company 's mines were situated on the summit of 
the Buck mountain, a few miles distant from Rockport, 
from which point the coal was then shipped to mar- 
ket on the Lehigh Canal. The breaker stood on the 
banks of Laurel run, and was driven by an ordinary 
twenty-five foot water-wheel, being, as nearly as can 
be ascertained, with one exception, the only breaker in 
the anthracite region employing water for its motive 
power. 

A breaker owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 
Company at Nesquehoning, is said to have been sim- 
ilarly built and operated, this being the single excep- 
tion. 

Mr. Haydon was one of the organizers of the Spring 
Mountain Coal Company, which was chartered in 1864. 
His associate in this enterprise was Theodore Ran- 
dolph, formerly a United States Senator from New 



466 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Jersey, and the Governor of that state. This company 
operated the mines at Jeanesville until 1874, when the 
property was acquired by the Lehigh Valley Coal Com- 
pany. Under the firm name of J. C. Haydon and Com- 
pany, Mr. Haydon, in partnership with Francis Robin- 
son, of New York, continued to operate these mines 
under lease until 1894. They also operated the Glen- 
don Colliery at Mahanoy City, and another colliery at 
Mt. Carmel. 

Aside from the coal mines, the principal interest of 
Jeanesville for many years centered in the shops of 
the Jeansville Iron Works, established there by the 
SiH-ing Mountain Coal Company. These shops were 
conducted by J. C. Haydon and Company until 1902, in 
which year the Jeanesville Iron Works Company was 
formed, Mr. Haydon being the principal stockholder 
and president of the corporation. In 1903 the plant 
was removed to Hazleton, where large and modern 
shops were erected. 

In 1909 the works were sold to the International 
Steam Pump Company, of New York, the largest con- 
cern of the kind in the United States, their specialty 
being the construction of both steam and electrical 
pumps. The excellence of their product has long since 
given the Jeanesville shops a world-wide reputation. 

Mr. Haydon was married in 1858 to Ellen F. New- 
ton, a native of Vermont. Her life has been character- 
ized by unselfishness and generosity. She was a sister- 
in-law of John 0. Cleaver, a member of the firm of 
Rich and Cleaver, who opened Coleraine colliery dur- 
ing the forties. 

Heberling, Daniel, one of the pioneer merchants of 
Carbon county, was born in Allen township, North- 
ampton county, Pennsylvania, on February 10, 1801. 
He was of German descent, his father emigrating to 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 467 

this country from the district of Alsace-Lorraine, 
Germany. When a boy, Daniel learned the trade of a 
cloth weaver, and as the opportunity offered, attended 
the country schools. He also taught school for a 
while. In 1829 he was married to Mary Ann Leh. 
Finding the weaving trade insufficient to support his 
wife and growing family, he obtained employment on 
the Lehigh Canal, which was then in course of con- 
struction. 

In the spring of 1833, 'Hhe year the stars fell," he 
and his wife, together with their child, Thomas, lo- 
cated in Weissport, then a part of Northampton coun- 
ty, and took possession of the Weissport House, which 
is still standing, and which was at that time the prin- 
cipal hostelry of the nearby locality. 

There were at that time but two other houses in the 
place, namely, that owned by Daniel Arner, and the 
other, the home of Colonel Jacob Weiss, the latter oc- 
cupying the site where the Fort Allen Hotel now 
stands. Peter Snyder, of Lehigh Gap, built and owned 
the Weissport House, and gave Mr. Heberling posses- 
sion and a year's rent free, so anxious was he to 
have a good tenant. 

Mr. Heberling was landlord of the Weissport House 
for three years ; but having a strong aversion to hotel 
life, he moved out of the premises and launched into 
the general store business on White street, Weissport. 
At the same time he filled the office of justice of the 
peace and squire, serving in the latter capacity for a 
period of nine years. He also did considerable survey- 
ing locally. He was very successful as a merchant and 
had already amassed what in those days was consid- 
ered a competence, when the terrible flood of 1841 de- 
vastated Weissport and other places along the Lehigh 
river, and swept away or ruined everything he had 



468 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. ^ -, 

in the world, save his family, his good name and repu- 
tation for honesty and square dealing. Nothing 
daunted, he procured a team (there being no railroads 
then) and drove to Philadelphia, where he had no trou- 
ble in inducing his creditors to start him anew. He 
was then forty years old, but still full of grit and am- 
bition. Gradually he recouped his losses and built up 
a bigger business than ever. In addition to the general 
store business he engaged in the building of canal boats 
on a large scale, in which he was also very successful. 
He dabbled somewhat in politics and was appointed 
associate judge of Carbon county in 1848 — five years 
after the new county of Carbon was formed, and held 
office until 1851. 

He was for many years, and up to the time of his 
death, a director in the First National Bank of Mauch 
Chunk. He was also largely interested in the Parry- 
ville Iron Works. In 1862 Weissport was again swept 
by a destructive freshet, but Mr. Heberling, profiting 
by his former experience, in the flood of 1841, had built 
himself a large and substantial brick dwelling and 
store, which defied the raging waters, and his losses 
were slight, while other houses in the town were swept 
from their foundations and carried down the Lehigh. 
After the waters receded Weissport was completely 
covered with huge logs, which had broken loose from 
the White Haven dams, being piled as high as some of 
the house-tops. Mr. Heberling, with characteristic 
shrewdness in the time of emergency, formed a part- 
nership with Jonas Bowman, erected a temporary saw- 
mill and cut up all the logs into marketable lumber, at 
a considerable profit. In 1868 Mr. Heberling moved to 
Lehighton, where he erected for himself and family a 
substantial home, in which he resided until his death, 
which occurred May 29, 1876. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 459 

His family consisted of Thomas J., James W., Dan- 
iel Christian, and Edgar Allen. 

The latter was drowned while a student at Lafayette 
College. James, Thomas and Daniel were in their day 
prominent merchants of Mauch Chunk, the former also 
filling the office of associate judge of the county, to 
which position he was appointed upon the death of 
Judge Harry E. Packer. Thomas was elected to the 
office of prothonotary in 1861. 

There are four daughters, Mrs. F. P. Semmel, Mrs. 
J. L. Gabel, Mrs. Benjamin Bertolet and Mrs. Lewis 
B. Balliet. 

Heberling, Dr. Homer, a Lehighton dentist, was born 
at Mauch Chunk on November 15, 1870, being the elder 
son of Daniel C. and Ellen (Struthers) Heberling. His 
paternal grandfather, Daniel Heberling, was one of the 
early merchants of Carbon county, while his mother's 
father was James Robb Struthers, Esq., the first dis- 
trict attorney of the county. 

Graduating from the Mauch Chunk high school with 
the class of 1887, he enrolled as a student at Eastman's 
Business College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Having fin- 
ished his course he accepted a position as stenographer 
in the office of the general freight agent of the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad at South Bethlehem, Pa. 

In May, 1888, he entered the employ of the firm of 
Whitney & Kemmerer at Philadelphia, remaining with 
them for seven years. During this time he was elected 
secretary of the Beaumont Coal Mining Company, of 
which W. B. Whitney was the president. 

Entering the Philadelphia Dental Colllege in the fall 
of 1893, he was graduated from that institution in 
1896. During his freshman year he retained his posi- 
tion with the firm by which he was employed, while 
keeping up with his classes in college. After his grad- 



470 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

uation he was engaged for a short time as an assistant 
to a leading dentist of Trenton, N. J. 

Coming to Lehighton in the summer of 1896, with no 
other capital than his training, a good constitution, and 
plenty of grit and ambition, he established himself in 
the practise of his profession, gaining a patronage 
which has grown from year to year. 

Dr. Heberling is a member of the Pennsylvania 
State Dental Society, the Susquehanna Dental So- 
ciety, and the Lehigh Valley Dental Society. He is a 
past master of the Masonic lodge of Lehighton, while 
being identified with the Robert Burns Scottish So- 
ciety of Summit Hill. He was the first treasurer of 
All Saints Episcopal church of Lehighton. His young- 
er brother James Struthers Heberling is the superin- 
tendent of the William T. Carter Junior Republic at 
Redington, Pa. 

In 1901, Dr. Heberling was married to Katharine 
Victoria, the only daughter of Dr. Jacob G. Zern and 
his wife Ellen M., of Lehighton. She is a member of 
the Daughters of the American Revolution. They have 
one child, Jacob Zern Heberling. 

Heydt, Hon. Horace. When Carbon county was con- 
stituted an independent judicial district, separating it 
from Monroe county, during the administration of 
Governor Stone, Horace Heydt was appointed to the 
judgeship, to serve out the unexpired term of Judge 
Allen Craig, who remained upon the bench of Monroe 
county. 

That was in the year 1901. The following year Judge 
Heydt received the nomination of his party for the full 
term of ten years, and was elected. He looks scarcely 
a day older to-day than at the time of his elevation to 
the bench, and he bears the burden of his fifty-seven 
years lightly and gracefully. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 471 

Judge Heydt is of Pennsylvania German extraction ; 
he was born in Montgomery county, February 12, 1856. 
His great-grandfather, George Heydt, was the founder 
of the family in America. The father of Judge Heydt 
also bore the name of George, having been born in 
Berks county in 1830. He was a bricklayer, marrying, 
in early life, Sarah, the daughter of John Dotter, of 
Montgomery county. 

The future judge was but three years of age when 
the family removed to Berks county, where he received 
his early education in the public schools. Later he 
went to Kutztown State Normal School, graduating 
with the class of 1878. After teaching school for a few 
terms he entered Lafayette College, where he gradu- 
ated in 1884. 

During his senior year at college, Mr. Heydt became 
a law student under W. G. Freyman, frequently men- 
tioned as the Nestor of the Carbon County Bar, being 
admitted to practise in 1885. He became a member of 
the firm of Freyman, Heydt and Nothstein, and was 
one of the most successful practitioners at the bar 
until his appointment to the judgeship in 1901. 

Judge Heydt resides at Lehighton, where he has 
played the part of a wide-awake and progressive citi- 
zen. He was for a time the president of the school 
board of the borough, and is prominent in Masonic 
circles. He and his family are members of the Luth- 
eran church. 

On January 1, 1880, he was married to Ellen J., 
daughter of Moses and Lavina (Lauchnor) Heilman. 
The pair have four children : Gertrude, the wife of S. 
S. Freeman; Helen, Anna and George. 

The judge is of a studious disposition, and the at- 
torneys who practise before him always find him well 
posted in the law, and entirely up-to-date on the deci- 



472 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

sions of the higher courts. He gives his rulings firmly 
and without hesitation. He is particularly adept in 
charging a jury, no juryman with the slightest claim 
to intelligence and common sense having any occasion 
to retire from the court room for deliberation without 
knowing the law in the case to be decided, or without 
carrying in his mind a clear summing up of the evi- 
dence adduced at the trial. 

Judge Heydt has decided numerous important cases 
during his tenure of office, while he has often been 
called to preside in the courts of Luzerne, Lackawanna, 
Lehigh and other neighboring counties, where he has 
always made a favorable impression. 

He is a supporter of the principles advocated by the 
Eepublican party, and prior to assuming his present 
position, he was the secretary of the Republican coun- 
ty committee. 

Hofford, Samuel W., deputy clerk of the United 
States District Court at Scranton, formerly chief clerk 
of the commissioners of Carbon county, and a promi- 
nent Eepublican leader, was born at White Haven, Pa., 
March 28, 1867. 

His grandfather, Adam Hofford, was an employe 
of the old Beaver Meadow Eailroad Company, and 
for many years had charge of the planes at Weatherly, 
and at Penn Haven, respectively. 

Francis T. Hofford, his father, was a locomotive en- 
gineer on the Lehigh Valley Eailroad. He was mar- 
ried to Sarah E. Dodson, a native of Salem township, 
Luzerne county. Pa. They were the parents of four 
sons and three daughters. 

S. W. Hofford left school at an early age to begin life 
as a railroad laborer, later becoming a brakeman. 
Learning the trade of a butcher, he was in the employ 
of the firm of Kocher and Young at Weatherly for six 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 473 

years. Subsequently he was a clerk in the general 
store of J. G. Eadie at that place. 

Taking an active interest in politics, he affiliated with 
the Republican party, being elected to the office of tax 
collector of Weatherly. He also served as a member 
of the school board of that borough. 

Mr. Hofford was chosen as chairman of the Carbon 
county Republican committee in 1902, receiving the ap- 
pointment of chief clerk in the office of the county com- 
missioners during the following year, and very capably 
filling both positions until 1909. 

In 1908 he was the nominee of his party for state 
senator in his district, but failed of election, the dis- 
trict being strongly Democratic. The next year he was 
an unsuccessful candidate for the office of sheriff of 
Carbon county. 

In 1910 he was appointed a deputy United States 
marshal for the middle district of Pennsylvania, re- 
moving from Weatherly, his former home, to Scranton. 
A year later he was advanced to the position of deputy 
clerk of the United States court for the same district, 
in which capacity he is now serving. 

On September 23, 1892, he was wedded to Emma 
J., daughter of Lewis Young, of Weatherly. They have 
five surviving children, as follows : Harold C, Lewis 
F., Florence C, and George E. Hofford. 

Mr. Hofford is a member of the Masonic fraternity. 

Horlacher, Andrew H., manager and principal stock- 
holder of the Allen Candy Manufacturing Company, of 
Weatherly, and an honored resident of that place, was 
born in Wurtemberg, Germany, on Oct. 31, 1852. He 
is the son of John and Catherine (Schneider) Horlach- 
er, and was one of a family of ten children. 

Reared on his father's farm, and educated in the 
schools of his native country, he emigrated to America 



474 ' HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

in 1868, locating at Philadelphia. Here he learned the 
trade of a baker, also acquiring his first knowledge of 
the manufacture of confectionery. 

From Philadelphia he went to AUentown, later being 
employed for a brief period at Slatington, Pa. 

In 1874, Mr. Horlacher located at Weatherly, estab- 
lishing a bakery which he profitably conducted for 
twenty-three years, when he sold his business to Harry 
Yeide. 

In association with A. D. Roth, E. A. Acker, William 
Kohler, E. H. Bortz, and E. A. Butz, Mr. Horlacher, in 
1897, organized the Allen Candy Manufacturing Com- 
pany, establishing the plant at AUentown, Pa. Two 
years later its location was changed to Weatherly, 
where it has become an important industry, employing 
many workers. The machinery of the plant is the 
most modern and improved, while its output has in- 
creased from year to year. 

Mr. Horlacher has been the manager, treasurer and 
principal stockholder of the company since its organ- 
ization. 

He was married on March 15, 1874, to Emma, daugh- 
ter of George Koehler, of Northampton county. Their 
domestic life has been ideal in its harmony and tran- 
quility. Four children have been born to them: Liz- 
zie S., wife of A. D. Roth ; William H., Jennie M., wife 
of T. C. Sigman, and Nellie F., wife of Floyd T. War- 
ner. 

Mr. Horlacher has been a leading member of the 
Lutheran church of Weatherly almost since its estab- 
lishment, having been a trustee and treasurer of that 
organization for twenty-five years. 

As a member of town council and in the capacity of 
a private citizen and business man, he has worked 
effectively for the prosperity and well-being of the 
community in which he lives. 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 475 

Isenman, Joseph H., a Lehighton grocer, was born in 
Baden, near Offenburg, Germany, April 4, 1854. His 
father, Severin Isenman, was an inn keeper, and was 
the father of eleven children, four of whom grew to 
maturity. 

In 1872, being then eighteen years of age, Mr. Isen- 
man emigrated to America, locating in Mauch Chunk, 
where he secured employment in the foundry and ma- 
chine shop then conducted by Messrs. Stroh and Al- 
bright. A year later he entered the service of the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company at Packerton, be- 
coming a car repairer. He remained with the company 
for many years, and was finally promoted to the posi- 
tion of night foreman of the Packerton yards. 

In 1895 Mr. Isenman erected the building at the cor- 
ner of Third and Coal streets which he now occupies, 
opening a general store. Five years later he sold his 
stock and leased the building to the firm of Rehrig 
Bros., who held possession for six years, when Mr. 
Isenman again assumed control of the business. 

Mr. Isenman was married in 1873 to Veronica Lu- 
henska, of Jamestown, a suburb of Lehighton. Four 
children were born to them, as follows : Annie, Emma, 
Agnes and Charles Isenman. 

Annie is the wife of Henry Schwartz, of Lehighton; 
Emma is married to William Coyle, of Tresckow, Car- 
bon county, while Agnes is the wife of Charles Dierkes, 
of Lehighton. Charles married Johanna Toomey, of 
Bethlehem. Mrs. Isenman died in 1899. 

Mr. Isenman has served as a member of the town 
council of Lehighton, and was one of the organizers of 
the Lehigh Valley Building and Loan Association, of 
which he is also a director. Mr. Isenman is a member of 
the Catholic church, while he is a supporter of the 
Democratic party. He is progressive and never fails 



476 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

to manifest an interest in questions affecting the wel- 
fare of the community in which he lives. 

Jenkins, Thomas L., a veteran educator of Carbon 
county, now assistant principal of the schools of East 
Mauch Chunk, was born at Nesquehoning, Pa., Janu- 
ary 7, 1865. He is the son of Eichard and Ann (Eman- 
uel) Jenkins, natives of Merthyr Tidvil, Wales, who 
came to America in 1841, first settling at Tamaqua, 
Schuylkill county. 

The father was, during the greater part of his ac- 
tive life, a mine foreman for the Lehigh Coal and Nav- 
igation Company at Nesquehoning. When Thomas 
was six years of age, the family removed to a farm in 
Packer township where he grew to maturity. 

He was educated at the West Chester State Normal 
School and at Palm's Business College, Philadelphia. 
For twenty-five years he has been a school teacher, 
having occupied his present position for ten years. 
Many of his former pupils owe their success in life 
largely to the native ability and enthusiasm which he 
brought to his calling. 

On April 2, 1886, Mr. Jenkins was married to Han- 
nah, a daughter of Solomon Gerhard, one of the early 
residents of Packer township. They have two sons, 
both of whom are successful teachers. Albion, the 
elder, who has had several years' experience, is a 
graduate of the Keystone State Normal School and is 
now a student at Columbia University. Rayel is also 
a graduate of the first named institution, and is at pres- 
ent teaching in the public schools of Los Angeles, Cal- 
ifornia. 

Johnson, Thomas, a member of the firm of Johnson 
Brothers, conducting two of Carbon county's leading 
clothing and furnishing stores, was born at Mauch 
Chunk in 1876. 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 477 

John Johnson, his father, was born in Ireland, emi- 
grating to America in 1875, and locating at Mauch 
Chunk. He was united in marriage in the late sixties 
to Annie Sweeney, also a native of Erin, the pair build- 
ing their home at Mauch Chunk, where they have lived 
continuously since that time. The following children 
were born to them: Mary, Daniel, Thomas, Patrick, 
John, Joseph, James and Michael. John and the two 
last named are deceased. 

Thomas Johnson was educated in the parochial and 
public schools of Mauch Chunk. After various em- 
ployments he learned the clothing business, establish- 
ing a store, in association with his brother, Joseph, at 
Mauch Chunk in 1903. Subsequently Patrick and Dan- 
iel were also admitted to the partnership. Honest 
practises and fair dealing bringing success, the firm 
opened a branch store in Lansford in 1907, this being 
under the immediate supervision of Daniel and Joseph. 

In 1908 Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Margaret 
McLaughlin, of Lansford. Anna and John are their 
two children. He is a member of the Eoman Catholic 
church, and is identified with the Knights of Columbus. 

Kasparek, Eev. Joseph, pastor of St. Michael's 
Roman Catholic (Slovak) church, of Lansford, son of 
John and Theresa (Kolinek) Kasparek, was born in 
Moravia, Austria, on March 21, 1871. At the age of 
twelve he enrolled in a preparatory school of his na- 
tive country, where he was a student for eight years. 
He then matriculated at the American College, Lou- 
vain, Belgium, where he studied theology, and was 
ordained to the priesthood on June 29, 1894, 

Almost immediately thereafter he sailed for Amer- 
ica, being appointed as the assistant of Rev. William 
Heinan, the famous pastor of St. Joseph's church, of 
East Mauch Chunk. The day following his arrival, he 



478 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

already took the necessary legal steps toward becom- 
ing naturalized, and five years later became a citizen 
of the United States. 

Remaining in East Mauch Chunk but a short time, 
Father Kasparek became the first resident pastor of 
the congregation which he is now serving. After nine 
months he assumed charge of a church at McAdoo, 
Schuylkill county, and built another at Sheppton, in 
the same county. At the end of a year he went to 
Reading, Pa., from which place he was transferred to 
Mahanoy City, where he remained for seven years. 
During his residence there, he built a church at Shen- 
andoah. 

In 1905 Rev. Kasparek was again stationed at Lans- 
ford, where he has since remained. Under his leader- 
ship St. Michael's parochial school, costing thirty 
thousand dollars, and opened in 1907, was built. Early 
during the following year the church edifice of the con- 
gregation was destroyed by fire. Preparations were at 
once begun to replace the building, and on Thanksgiv- 
ing Day, 1911, the present home of the congregation 
on East Abbot street, was dedicated with imposing 
ceremonies. 

This is one of the most magnificent churches in Penn- 
sylvania, costing one hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars. It will long stand as a monument to Father Kas- 
parek and his people. 

Kemmerer, Mahlon S., a prominent coal operator 
and man of affairs, residing at Mauch Chunk, was born 
at Cherry Valley, Monroe county. Pa., on August 27, 
1843. His father, Charles Kemmerer, who was a mill- 
wright by trade, was also a native of Cherry Valley, 
while his mother bore the maiden name of Mary Ann 
Price, being the daughter of John J. Price, an early 
lumberman of that section. 




^^,.i^^i^iJ^V^:^-<.<<>^eA-2^ 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 479 

M. S. Kemmerer became a resident of Carbon county 
in his early youth. He was educated in the common 
schools and at Dickinson Seminary, Williamsport, Pa. 
At the age of fourteen he began life as a clerk in a 
colliery store at Summit Hill, continuing in that ca- 
pacity until 1862. The memorable freshet of that year, 
paralyzing the transportation facilities of the Lehigh 
Valley, suspended operations in the coal regions. He 
then joined an engineering corps engaged in the work 
of rebuilding the Lehigh Canal. 

A direct result of the freshet was the building of the 
Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, the legislature pro- 
hibiting the rebuilding of the canal between Mauch 
Chunk and White Haven. 

The engineering corps to which Mr. Kemmerer be- 
longed undertook the survey of this road, and he re- 
mained with them for several years in the capacity of 
an assistant engineer. At the expiration of this period 
he accepted a position as mining engineer and assistant 
superintendent of the Upper Lehigh Coal Company, of 
Luzerne county. After four years of service in the 
employ of this company he began his active business 
career as a member of the firm of Whitney, McCreary 
& Kemmerer, dealers in coal, the firm subsequently 
becoming Whitney & Kemmerer. 

In 1876 he engaged in the mining of coal at Harleigh, 
Pond Creek and other collieries, achieving honorable 
success from the start. He became financially inter- 
ested in the Connellsville Coke and Iron Company, the 
Carbon Iron and Pipe Company and the Carbon Roll- 
ing Mill Company, in all of which enterprises he served 
as a director. He also served as secretary and treas- 
urer of the Virginia Coal and Iron Company, and as 
a director of the Alden Coal Company, of Wilkes- 
Barre. 



480 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Mr. Kemmerer is largely interested in mining prop- 
erties in the West, and the town of Kemmerer, Wy- 
oming, is named in his honor. For years he has held 
the controlling interest in the iron works at Parry- 
ville. He is also the president of the Mauch Chunk 
National Bank. 

Governor Pattison appointed Mr. Kemmerer as one 
of the commissioners in the matter of revising the 
mining laws of the state. He has always upheld the 
principles advocated by the Eepublican party, and is 
a communicant of the Presbyterian church. 

On December 1, 1868, Mr. Kemmerer was married 
to Annie L., daughter of Hon. John Leisenring, who 
was one of Mauch Chunk's foremost citizens. John L., 
Mahlon L., and Gertrude L. are their three children. 

Kennedy, Thomas, president of the Seventh District, 
United Mine Workers of America, comprising Carbon 
county and portions of Luzerne and Schuylkill, is a son 
of Peter Kennedy, who emigrated to this country from 
Ireland in 1878, and located at Coal Dale, Schuylkill 
county. He was married to Mary, a daughter of 
James Boyle, of Lansford, in 1885. They had eight 
children, all of whom are yet living. 

The father was killed by a fall of coal in one of the 
mines of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in 
the year 1902. 

Thomas Kennedy was born at Lansford, November 
2, 1887. At the age of eleven he left school and began 
his life as a worker by picking slate in the breaker. 
He filled various positions in and about the mines, 
finally becoming a full-fledged miner. He early mani- 
fested an interest in economic problems, and at the 
age of sixteen began to show an understanding of the 
questions affecting capital and labor. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 481 

He has attended every national convention of the 
United Mine Workers as a delegate since he became 
seventeen years of age. 

In 1908 Mr. Kennedy received a large vote for the 
office of secretary of his district, but failed of election. 
Two years later he was elected to the presidency of 
District No. 7, and is now the youngest district presi- 
dent of his union in the United States. 

In this honorable position he is working intelligently 
for the amelioration and betterment of the condition 
of the men whose interests he represents. He took a 
leading part in the conferences between the representa- 
tives of the miners and the operators, resulting in the 
peaceful settlement of the ditferences between capital 
and labor in the coal region in 1912. 

By virtue of the position he holds, Mr. Kennedy is 
a member of the Anthracite Conciliation Board, which 
came into being under the award of the Anthracite 
Strike Commission of 1902. He was married in 1912 
to Miss Helen Melley, of Philadelphia. 

Kistler, D. Amandus, conducting a grist mill in Ma- 
honing township, on the site of the mill built by Benja- 
min Gilbert in 1775, and destroyed by the Indians 
some years later, is the son of David D. and Mary A. 
(Mantz) Kistler, both natives of West Penn, Schuyl- 
kill county. 

D. Amandus Kistler was born in Mahoning town- 
ship on April 4, 1858. The place of his nativity was 
the farm which was originally settled by Samuel Dod- 
son, whose daughter, Abigail, was taken captive by 
the Indians, together with Benjamin Gilbert and his 
family. At the age of twenty-two Mr. Kistler pur- 
chased this farm from his father, occupying and tilling 
the same until 1911, when he disposed of it to the 
present occupant, Ira Troxel. 



482 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Mr. Kistler purchased his present home, together 
with the mill which he operates, in the autumn of 1908. 
He was married on December 14, 1887, to Alvena, the 
daughter of Joseph Zimmerman, of West Penn town- 
ship. Their children are: Oscar, Ada, Mabel, Clif- 
ford and Warren. 

Mr. Kistler has for years been a member of the Re- 
publican executive committee of Carbon county. 

Kline, C. Fred, cashier of the First National Bank 
of Lansford, is the son of Charles F. and Hannah 
(Hart) Kline. His father is a native of Summit Hill, 
and is now a general merchant at Lansford, while his 
mother came from New Jersey. 

C. Fred Kline was born at Summit Hill on December 
4, 1869. He attended the public schools until his four- 
teenth year, when he began life as a clerk in his fa- 
ther 's store. During the spring of 1888 he entered the 
service of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, 
becoming the chief clerk of the company. For about 
ten years he also held the position of cashier of that 
corporation. His duties brought him into intimate 
contact with the workmen of the company, and for a 
period of fifteen years he assisted in the pleasant duty 
of paying them their wages. 

Early in 1911 he resigned to accept the cashiership 
of the First National Bank, of which he was one of 
the organizers. He has been a member of the board of 
directors of this institution since its inception. 

Mr. Kline served as secretary to the directorate of 
the Middle Coal Field Poor District for about six 
years. In the autumn of 1892 he was married to Ella 
C, daughter of J. B. Rickert, the veterinary surgeon 
of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company at Lans- 
ford. He is a member of various Masonic bodies, and 
is a communicant of the Methodist Episcopal church. 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 4g3 

Kresge, George D., a representative business man 
of Lehighton, was born at Stemlersville, Carbon coun- 
ty, Pa., on October 17, 1867. His father, Paul Kresge, 
was a native of Gilberts, Monroe county, the year of 
his birth being 1840. 

On November 3, 1862, he enlisted in Company F, 
One Hundred Seventy-Sixth Regiment, Pennsylvania 
Volunteer Infantry, and was honorably discharged as 
a corporal on August 17, 1863. Re-enlisting on March 
7, 1865, he became a member of the Second Regiment, 
Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, and was finally dis- 
charged on July 6th of the same year. 

Soon after the close of the Civil War, Mr. Kresge 
took up his residence at Stemlersville, Carbon county, 
where he conducted a general store and engaged in 
farming pursuits. He was also postmaster at Stem- 
lersville and was a justice of the peace for many years. 

In 1879 he was the nominee of the Democratic party 
for the office of sheriff of Carbon county, but was de- 
feated by the narrow margin of fourteen votes. 

Mr. Kresge was also one of the organizers of the 
Citizens' National Bank, of Lehighton, and was one of 
the first directors of that institution. He was married 
to Mary, a daughter of Daniel Stemler, and they be- 
came the parents of nine children. Mr. Kresge died 
September 2, 1908, leaving behind him the record of a 
life of usefulness and honorable conduct. 

George D. Kresge, after leaving the public schools, 
attended Broadheadsville Academy and the Polytech- 
nic Institute, both Monroe county institutions. He 
taught school for two years, and, in 1885, located at 
Lehighton, opening a general store, which he has con- 
ducted with growing success to the present time. 

Mr. Kresge has been a member of the school board 
of Lehighton for a dozen years, in which capacity he 



484 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

has taken an active and intelligent interest in educa- 
tional work. He is also a director in the Lehigh Valley- 
Building and Loan Association. He is a member of 
the Masonic fraternity, of the Independent Americans, 
and of the Knights of Malta, while being an adherent 
of the Reformed church. 

On November 30, 1889, George D. Kresge was united 
in marriage to Glendora, a daughter of David Beltz, 
of Franklin township. Their children are : Mary, Eva, 
Myrtle, and Russell Kresge. 

Kressley, Daniel, a veteran of the Civil War, and a 
farmer of Mahoning township, was born at Lynnport, 
Lehigh county. Pa., on January 18, 1844. His parents 
were Jonathan and Elizabeth (Brobst) Kressley, both 
natives of Pennsylvania. 

When Daniel was six years of age, the family re- 
moved to Mahoning township. Carbon county, where he 
grew to manhood. He was one among thirty-seven, in 
one manner or another connected with the public 
school at New Mahoning, who volunteered in the war 
for the preservation of the Union. 

First enlisting as a private in Company F, One Hun- 
dred Thirty-Second Regiment, P. V. L, on August 9, 
1862, he was discharged on account of disability on 
January 17, 1863, having been sick with typhoid fever 
in a Washington hospital for nine weeks. 

Re-enlisting as a corporal in the Two Hundred and 
Second Pennsylvania Regiment he served until honor- 
ably discharged, August 3, 1865. 

Among the wartime memories which stand forth 
prominently in his mind are the battle of South Moun- 
tain, where he participated in a parting volley which 
wrought havoc in the ranks of the enemy, and the 
Bloody Lane of Antietam, where he was wounded. He 
also recalls with vividness an encounter between his 




oKTUiloi^ 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 485 

regiment and the command of the celebrated Mosby, 
at Salem Heights, Va., in which the Confederates were 
worsted. 

After the war Mr. Kressley returned to Mahoning 
township, where, during the winter months he taught 
school for thirteen years. Between terms he was em- 
ployed as a car builder by the Lehigh Coal and Navi- 
gation Company and the Lehigh Valley Railroad Com- 
pany. 

Since 1884 he has devoted his energies to agricul- 
tural pursuits on a farm which he had previously pur- 
chased. 

On April 21, 1867, he was married to Mary A., 
daughter of Gabriel Dilcher. They have eight surviv- 
ing children, two sons and six daughters. Both sons 
are preachers of the Reformed church. Clement Dan- 
iel, the eldest, is located at Higens, Schuylkill county. 
Pa., while Thomas M. is stationed at Pine Grove, in the 
same county. 

Mr. Kressley is connected with the Lutheran church. 
He is a charter member of John D. BertoUette Post, 
No. 484, G. A. R., of Lehighton, Pa. 

Kressley, James Franklin, one of Weatherly's fore- 
most citizens and a prominent member of the Grand 
Army of the Republic, was born at Lynnport, Lehigh 
county, on November 29, 1846. His father, Jonathan 
Kressley, who was a carpet and linen weaver, was also 
a native of Lehigh county. He chose as his life com- 
panion Elizabeth Brobst, who came from a family well 
known in that section of the state. They became the 
parents of two sons and three daughters. 

When James was still a child the family removed to 
New Mahoning, Carbon county, and at the age of nine 
he began to earn his own way by working for a farmer. 
In June, 1863, when the call was issued for volunteers 



486 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

to repel Lee 's invasion of Pennsylvania, Mr. Kressley, 
though but little past sixteen years of age, enlisted for 
the required period of three months. Later he re- 
enlisted for three years, or during the continuance of 
the conflict, becoming a member of the One Hundred 
and Sixteenth Eegiment Pennsylvania Volunteer In- 
fantry, and serving until the close of the war. He was 
honorably discharged as a sergeant in June, 1865. 

Returning to civil life, he fitted himself as a teacher 
by attending the Carbon Academy at Lehighton for 
five months. He taught school for two years, after 
which he came to Weatherly, where he served in the 
general store of W. W. Blakslee in various capacities 
for sixteen years. 

In 1885 Mr. Kressley established himself as a dealer 
in hardware and lumber at Weatherly, selling out the 
business two years later to J. C. Sendel, and removing 
with his family to Birmingham, Alabama, for the ben- 
efit of his wife's health. After a sojourn of a year in 
the South he returned to Weatherly, and soon there- 
after purchased the general store of J. G. Eadie, con- 
ducting the business for six years. 

He spent a year in aiding to organize the Weatherly 
Foundry and Machine Company, acting as the secre- 
tary of the company, and becoming a member of its 
board of directors. He was then chosen as the presi- 
dent of the Allen Candy Manufacturing Company, in 
which capacity he is still serving. He has given his 
best efforts to the building up of the business of this 
company, the affairs of which are in a prosperous con- 
dition. 

Mr. Kressley has been an independent in politics and 
has been a leader in the movement for the abolition of 
the liquor traflSc. Some years ago he was elected to 
the office of chief burgess of Weatherly, which he filled 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. • 487 

for a single term. For many years he has been the su- 
perintendent of the primary department of the Sun- 
day school of the Centenary Methodist Episcopal 
church. He was a prime mover in the erection of the 
Soldiers' Monument, dedicated at Weatherly in 1906. 

Mr. Kressley was united in marriage to Sallie, a 
daughter of John Derr, of Weatherly, in 1870. They 
are the parents of two sons, Walter and Robert Kress- 
ley. 

Kuehner, Eugene V., deputy clerk of courts for Car- 
bon county, and for thirteen years a teacher in the 
public schools, is one of the nine children of Augustus 
and Christiana (Eckhart) Kuehner, of Towamensing 
township. His father followed the vocation of a farm- 
er, having been married in 1859. 

Eugene V. Kuehner was born on March 6, 1870, in 
Towamensing township; he attended the district 
schools until his seventeenth year, and later attended 
Muhlenberg College at Allentown, being also a gradu- 
ate of Palm's Business College, of Philadelphia. In 
addition to this he attended a number of select and 
summer schools. 

Mr. Kuehner served as a justice of the peace in 
Towamensing township for a number of years, later 
becoming deputy prothonotary and clerk of courts 
under W. J. Zerbey in 1901. This office was di- 
vided by act of the legislature during the incumbency 
of Mr. Zerbey, who served three terms as clerk of 
courts, but Mr. Kuehner held both deputyships until 
November 6, 1909, when he relinquished his duties in 
the office held by Mr. Zerbey, but continued in the of- 
fice of the prothonotary until January, 1910. 

He was himself a candidate for the Republican nom- 
ination for clerk of courts in 1909, being defeated by 
a narrow margin at the primaries, but was appointed 
as the deputy of that officer in January, 1910. ^ 



488 ! HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Mr. Kuehner was wedded to Sabina A. Anthony, of 
Little Gap, Carbon county, on October 23, 1893. Elsie 
Kuehner is their only child. 

Mr. Kuehner is a member of the Patriotic Order of 
Sons of America and of the Independent Order of For- 
esters. 

During the presidential campaign of 1912 he sup- 
ported the candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt. He as- 
sisted in organizing the Washington party in Carbon 
county, and was chosen as the first secretary of that 
party in the county. Mr. Kuehner is the Mauch Chunk 
correspondent for a number of daily metropolitan 
journals. 

Kunkle, Harry F., conducting a general store at 
Trochsville, is the son of Harrison and Amanda 
(Dory) Kunkle, the former a native of Monroe county, 
and the latter of Northampton. The father was born 
in 1839, and when a young man engaged in the lumber 
business. Later he came to Trochsville, Carbon coun- 
ty, establishing himself in the mercantile business. He 
served as the tax collector of Towamensing township 
and as a member of the school board, besides holding 
a number of other offices. 

Harry F. Kunkle was born at Trochsville on May 31, 
1882. He was educated in the common schools, at the 
Polytechnic Institute, Gilberts, Monroe county, and at 
Schissler's Business College, Norristown, Pa. After 
leaving school he took a half interest in the business of 
his father, acquiring full control of the same through 
purchase in 1909. He was the postmaster of Carbon 
until the elimination of the office in 1911. 

Mr. Kunkle was married on March 13, 1903, to 
Tillula, the daughter of Dennis Moyer and his wife 
Amanda, of Trochsville. Stanley, their only son, was 
born in June, 1904. 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 43,9 

Mr. Kunkle is a member of the Eeformed church, 
and has been the superintendent of the Sunday school 
of that denomination at Trochsville for several years. 
He is identified with the Patriotic Order of Sons of 
America, and is a believer in the principles advocated 
by the Republican party. 

Kutz, Wilson L., a physician and surgeon, of Weiss- 
port, was born in Berks county. Pa., May 9, 1854, the 
fourth son of Samuel D. and Caroline (Dry) Kutz. 
He grew to maturity on his father's farm, receiving 
his preliminary education in the district schools and 
at Kutztown State Normal School, where he graduated 
in 1870. 

Enrolling as a student at the Philadelphia College 
of Pharmacy, he completed his course in 1874. Choos- 
ing the profession of medicine, he entered Jefferson 
Medical College, from which he was graduated with the 
class of 1878. After practising in Philadelphia for two 
years he located at Parryville, Carbon county, where 
he remained for six years. 

In 1887 he came to Weissport, forming a partnership 
with Dr. J. G. Zern, under the firm name of Zern and 
Kutz. This partnership was dissolved after about fif- 
teen years, since which time Doctor Kutz has practised 
quite successfully on his own account. 

In 1891 he was elected as coroner of Carbon county, 
and he has held most of the offices in the gift of the 
people of Weissport. He is a member of the Carbon 
County Medical Society, having served as president of 
that body, being also identified with the Lehigh Valley 
Medical Association and the American Medical So- 
ciety. For some time past he has been a surgeon for 
the Lehigh Valley Railroad. 

He is a member and past officer of the Masonic fra- 
ternity at Lehighton, Lilly Chapter and Packer Com- 



490 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

mandery, at Mauch Chunk, and is connected with Irem 
Temple, Order of the Mystic Shrine, of Wilkes-Barre, 
while belonging to a number of other organizations. 

In 1872 Doctor Kutz was married to Victoria Diehl. 
They have two sons, Leroy and Harry Cooper Kutz. 

Lauderburn, A. J., who was numbered among 
Weatherly's most prominent and influential citizens, 
was born at Youngstown, Westmoreland county, Pa., 
on November 5, 1823. 

Frederick Lauderburn, his grandfather, was of 
Swiss parentage, but his family had removed to Ger- 
many, whence he emigrated to America during Colon- 
ial times. He was a soldier of the Revolutionary War. 

Christian, the eldest of the three children of Freder- 
ick Lauderburn, and the father of the subject of this 
memoir, was born in Philadelphia in 1770, and became 
a prosperous iron master. 

Alexander J. Lauderburn attended the public school 
in the place of his birth until his twelfth year, when 
his parents located at Orwigsburg, Schuylkill county. 
Pa., where he finished his education. Having had some 
military experience in his youth, he was, in 1851, com- 
missioned as a lieutenant-colonel of the State Militia, 
and served as an aid-de-camp on the staff of Governor 
William F. Johnston. 

He began life as a railroader, but soon abandoned 
this for clerical work. After a residence of several 
years at Tuscarora, Schuylkill county, he, in 1862, en- 
tered the service of Samuel Hudson, at Beaver Mea- 
dows. Subsequently he engaged in the mercantile busi- 
ness for a time. 

In 1867, Mr. Lauderburn removed to Hudsondale, 
near Weatherly, where, in association with Sampson 
Smith and Samuel Hudson, under the firm name of 
Lauderburn, Smith and Hudson, he built and equipped 




HcM.^ux^'-^^C^y'i^sjc^t^^ 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 491 

a large flour and grist mill. At the expiration of three 
years, the enterprise was abandoned as an unprofitable 
one, while the property was rented. The mill is now 
owned by the Hazleton Water Company. 

In 1871 Mr. Lauderburn took up his residence in 
Weatherly, where he spent the remainder of his life. 
He was first connected with a store which was conduct- 
ed on the co-operative plan. Later he opened a store 
on his own account, taking his son, A. H. Lauderburn 
into partnership with himself. This business was suc- 
cessfully continued for thirty years, and as his finan- 
cial resources increased, Mr. Lauderburn made ju- 
dicious investments in real estate, becoming the owner 
of considerable property in Weatherly and Hazleton. 

Contributing in many ways to the welfare of the 
town of his adoption, he was one of its most honored 
and useful citizens. He was a member of the Masonic 
fraternity, and was a loyal and devoted supporter of 
the Methodist church. During his residence at Hud- 
sondale he organized and conducted a Sunday school 
which is still flourishing. 

His companion in life bore the maiden name of 
Margaret Duel, to whom he was married at Tamaqua, 
Schuylkill county, in 1849, Of their seven children, 
four survive: Albert H., Ella, wife of S. G. Eby; 
Frederick and Edward. 

The father passed away in December, 1^06, in his 
eighty-fourth year, while Mrs. Lauderburn died on 
April 7, 1910. 

Lauer, John E., one of the best known residents of 
Lansford, is descended from pioneer settlers of York 
county, Pa. His ancestors emigrated thither from the 
Palatinate, in Germany, about 1736. They were in- 
fluential in the establishment of the Reformed church 



492 HISTOEY OP CARBON COUNTY. 

in that section of Pennsylvania, and participated in the 
struggle for American independence. 

Reuben, the father of John E. Lauer, was a wealthy 
and progressive farmer of York county. His wife bore 
the maiden name of Caroline Spangler. Their family 
consisted of four sons and four daughters. 

The subject of this memoir was born in Dover town- 
ship, York county, on February 11, 1850. He grew to 
maturity on his father's farm, receiving his early 
training in the schools of the neighborhood, which in 
those days were kept in session but a few months of 
the year. 

Entering Millersville State Normal School, he was 
graduated with the class of 1871. During his twenty- 
second year he came to Summit Hill, Pa., to assume 
the principalship of the schools of that place. At the 
expiration of the term he forsook teaching to take a 
clerical position with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 
Company at Nesquehoning. Later he was transferred 
to the Lansf ord offices of the company, becoming, after 
a time, the purchasing agent at that point, and continu- 
ing in that capacity until January 1, 1909, when he 
retired, having spent thirty-seven consecutive years in 
the service of the company. 

Mr. Lauer was among the first to recognize the possi- 
bilities of growth which lay in Lansford, early invest- 
ing in real estate which has since increased immensely 
in value. For a time he was the secretary of the Fi- 
delity Building and Loan Association, of Summit Hill, 
the first institution of its kind in the Panther Creek 
Valley, and he has been financially interested in the 
four associations that have followed this in Lansford. 
He was one of the organizers of the Panther Valley 
Electric Light, Heat and Power Company, of which 
he is still a stockholder, while being one of the found- 



HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 493 

ers of the First National Bank of Lansford, of which 
he is a director. For a time he was vice president of 
the First National Bank of Tamaqua. He is now the 
secretary and one of the owners of the Carbon Tele- 
phone Company. Mr. Lauer has also for years con- 
ducted a general insurance business. 

For more than thirty years he has been a member of 
the English Congregational church, of Lansford, hav- 
ing actively participated in the erection of the first 
building of that congregation. He served two terms 
as a member of the school board of the borough, and 
was twice an unsuccessful aspirant for the Democratic 
nomination for Congress in his district. 

In 1904 he was a delegate to the Democratic national 
convention at St. Louis, which nominated Alton B. 
Parker for the presidency. 

Mr. Lauer was married on November 17, 1872, to 
Henrietta G., daughter of Frank Zehner, of Summit 
Hill, and a sister of the late William D. Zehner, who 
was for thirty-six years the general superintendent 
of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. 

Joseph F. Zehner, a well-known contractor, who was 
cruelly murdered near Nesquehoning on September 7, 
1911, was a brother of Mrs. Lauer. 

The pair have three surviving children: Harry W., 
George N. and Mahlon H. Lauer. 

Leibenguth, James H., cashier of the Citizens' Na- 
tional Bank, of East Mauch Chunk, began life as a tele- 
graph operator, in which capacity he served the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad for years. His father was Joseph 
Leibenguth, a native of Northampton county, while his 
mother, before her marriage, bore the name of Eliza- 
beth Smith. 

Mr. Leibenguth was born at Cherryville, Northamp- 
ton county, April 11, 1859, and was educated in the 



494 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

public schools and at Weaversville Academy, North- 
ampton county. Having served his apprenticeship as 
a telegrapher, he was given a position as operator for 
the Lehigh Valley at Laurys, near Allentown. Later 
he held similar positions under the same corporation 
at Mahanoy City and at Delano, where he was in the 
office of division superintendent Blakslee. During the 
eighties he was made freight agent for the company 
at East Mauch Chunk, in which position he continued 
until September, 1906, when he and others organized 
the bank of which he has since been the cashier and a 
member of the board of directors. 

Mr. Leibenguth has been twice married. His first 
wife was Julia B. Reeder, daughter of George Reeder, 
of Easton. Two children were born of this union: 
Nettie Elizabeth and Lola Leibenguth. Mrs. Leiben- 
guth died in 1907, and two years later Mr. Leibenguth 
was wedded to Mrs. Carrie Jeffries, of East Mauch 
Chunk. He is a member of the Odd Fellows and at- 
tends the Methodist church. 

Lentz, Lafayette, one of Carbon county's grand old 
men and a well-known coal operator, living at Mauch 
Chunk, is one of the descendants of Conrad Lentz, who 
settled in Lehigh county prior to the Revolution. This 
pioneer was a school teacher, and he died in early life. 
Among his children was Colonel John Lentz, the father 
of the subject of this memoir, who was born in Lehigh 
county in 1793. He began life as a shoemaker, but 
later became a hotel keeper. He was also a successful 
contractor, and was one of the builders of the Lehigh 
Canal. 

While still a young man, he removed to that portion 
of Northampton county which was in 1843 set apart as 
the county of Carbon. In the subdivision which was 
then made he was a prime mover. Having previously 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 495 

served as a commissioner of Northampton county, he 
was later elected to the offices of commissioner and of 
sheriff in Carbon county. 

Taking a keen interest in military affairs all his life, 
he enlisted for service in the war of 1812, when but a 
lad. Among the first to volunteer at the breaking out 
of the Rebellion, he was rejected on account of his ad- 
vanced age. His title as Colonel was obtained in the 
State Militia. When Lee invaded Pennsylvania in 
1863, he recruited a company of reserves at Lehighton, 
and, as their captain, led them to Harrisburg in de- 
fense of the country. 

Colonel Lentz was thrice married. His first wife 
was Mary Lacier, his second, Julia Winter Barnett, 
widow of John Barnett, and the third Mrs. Elizabeth 
Metzgar. His death occurred at Mauch Chunk in 1875 
at the age of eighty-two years. 

Lafayette Lentz was born of the first marriage, at 
Lehigh Gap, Carbon county, in 1828. Beginning life 
as a clerk in a store at Parryville, he subsequently en- 
gaged in railroad construction work, being one of the 
original contractors in the building of the Lehigh Val- 
ley Railroad. He also built important stretches of 
the North Pennsylvania, Easton and Amboy, and Mor- 
ris and Essex railroads, and was the builder of the 
Vosburg tunnel, in Wyoming county. 

Mr. Lentz began his career as a coal operator near 
Mahanoy City, about 1869. He is now the senior mem- 
ber of the firm of Lentz and Company, operating a 
large colliery at Park Place, Schuylkill county. 

Cheerful, benevolent, and democratic, he has always 
enjoyed great personal popularity. He has been a 
great lover of the life out-of-doors, and has been an 
enthusiastic hunter and fisherman, retaining his vigor 



496 HISTOEY OF CAKBON COUNTY. 

of mind and body to an unusual degree for one of his 
advanced years. 

His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Swartz, 
was the daughter of John Swartz, a farmer and inn- 
keeper of Northampton county. They became the par- 
ents of five children: John, James, and Lafayette, 
who died in infancy; William 0., the manager of his 
father's coal interests, and Horace De Y. Lentz. 

Horace De Y. Lentz, who is a member of the Carbon 
county bar, was born at Mauch Chunk, where he still 
resides, on February 24, 1867. He was educated in the 
schools of his native town, the Preparatory School for 
Lehigh University, Adams Academy, Quincey, Mass., 
and at Harvard University, graduating from the latter 
institution with the degree of B.A. in 1891. 

Choosing the law as his profession, he entered the 
offices of Hon. L. H. Barber and Frederick Bertolette, 
at Mauch Chunk, as a student in 1893, being admitted 
to the bar in 1896. 

As the first agent of the Palmer Land Company, Mr. 
Lentz played an active part in the establishment of the 
now thriving town of Palmerton. He is a believer in 
the principles advocated by the Democratic party, but 
has never sought office, save on one occasion, having 
been a candidate for the nomination for Congress in 
the Twenty-sixth District in 1912. 

He has been a consistent friend of the Young Men 's 
Christian Association of Mauch Chunk, and was for a 
time a vestryman of St. Mark 's Episcopal church. He 
is a member of the University Club of Philadelphia, 
and is one of the directors of the Mauch Chunk Trust 
Company. 

In 1893 he was married to Jennie McCreary Alsover, 
a daughter of the late Jabez Alsover, prominent in 
legal circles in Carbon and Luzerne counties. 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 497 

Leslie, Harry, one of Palmerton's enterprising 
young business men, was born at Towanda, Bradford 
county, Pa., on August 25, 1870. He is the son of 
John and Sarah (Houser) Leslie. When Harry was 
eight years of age, his father, who was a locomotive 
engineer, was accidentally killed, and the family re- 
moved to Summit Hill, where, two years later, he began 
life as a slate picker on the breaker, subsequently en- 
tering the mines. 

Learning the trade of a tailor, he pursued his voca- 
tion at Mauch Chunk and other places until 1906, when 
he came to Palmerton and opened an establishment, 
soon attracting a large patronage. Recently he moved 
into larger and more handsome quarters, where he car- 
ries a complete line of up-to-date furnishing goods for 
men. 

Mr. Leslie has displayed his public spirit in many 
ways since locating in Palmerton. He was a charter 
member and the first vice president of the Palmerton 
Co-operative Society ; took an active part in the organ- 
ization of the fire company of the town, did much to- 
ward securing the erection of the handsome new high 
school building of the place, and was the first president 
of the Palmerton Athletic Association. 

As one of the Roosevelt delegates to the Republican 
state convention of 1912, he assisted in the overthrow 
of the political dynasty of United States Senator Boies 
Penrose. One of the cherished momentos that he re- 
tains of that gathering is the leg of a chair, which was 
used as a gavel by the chairman of the convention. He 
is one of the leaders of the Progressive movement in 
the county. 

On June 14, 1904, he was married to Stella, daugh- 
ter of Luther La Barre, of East Mauch Chunk. Anna 
and John are their two children. 



498 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

Mr. Leslie is a member of the Patriotic Order of 
Sons of America and of the Sons of Veterans. 

Lewis, William, a member of the firm of Lewis & 
Bray, operating the Old Millport Slate Quarry, near 
Aquashicola, being the only slate quarry that is now 
being worked north of the Blue mountains, was born 
in Devonshire, England, September 16, 1862. He is the 
son of Eobert and Mary ( Chaff e) Lewis, and, at the 
age of fifteen, left school to enter the slate quarries of 
his native county. 

Coming to America in 1882, he located at East Ban- 
gor, Pa., following his trade as a slater. 

In 1894 he accepted a position as superintendent for 
the Brilliant Black Slate Company at Aquashicola, 
serving in that capacity for two years. He then formed 
a partnership with Walter M. Bray, leasing the quarry 
over which he had been superintendent; this partner- 
ship is still in force, the firm employing about twenty- 
five men in its operations, and producing a good qual- 
ity of slate. 

Mr. Lewis is the father of a large and interesting 
family, having been married at the age of twenty- 
three to Laura C. Eyer, a daughter of Eeuben Eyer 
and his wife Ellen, of East Bangor. Their children 
are : W. Robert, Lottie, Violet A., Clarence E., T. Wil- 
mer, Arlington R., Paul L., and Alice C. Lewis. Rob- 
ert is a graduate of Perkiomen Seminary; Lottie and 
Violet are both teachers in the public schools, the form- 
er being a graduate of the high school of East Mauch 
Chunk, while the latter is a product of the high school 
maintained at Palmerton by Lower Towamensing 
township. Clarence is also a graduate of this institu- 
tion. 

Mr. Lewis has taken an active interest in the cause of 
popular education, having been a member of the board 




Hon. William Lilly. 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 499 

of education of Lower Towamensing township. His 
fraternal connections are with the Odd Fellows and the 
Masonic order. 

Lewis, Winfred D., a member of the Carbon county 
bar, living at Lansford, was born there on February 
6, 1883. He is of Welsh descent, being the son of the 
late 'Squire John L. and Ann (Davis) Lewis. In early 
life he worked about the mines of the Lehigh Coal and 
Navigation Company. Graduating from the Lansford 
high school with the class of 1899, he later attended 
Perkiomen Seminary. For a year he taught Greek 
and Latin there. Entering Princeton University, he 
graduated from that institution in 1905, with the de- 
gree of A.B. 

After reading law in the office of a Mauch Chunk 
attorney, he pursued a course of study at Dickinson 
Law School, being admitted to the bar of Carbon 
county in 1908. He maintains an office in the Navi- 
gation Building at Mauch Chunk, in addition to his of- 
fice at Lansford. 

In 1910 Mr. Lewis was the Republican nominee for 
state senator from his district, but was defeated by a 
slight margin, the district being overwhelmingly 
Democratic. Two years later he easily won the nom- 
ination of his party for the office of assemblyman from 
Carbon county, losing in the general election, owing to 
the split in the Republican ranks. 

He has been retained as the legal adviser of the bor- 
ough of Summit Hill, and has built up a good general 
practise. 

Mr. Lewis is a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity 
and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. 
He was a prominent athlete during his years at college. 

Lilly, General William, who was one of Carbon 
county's foremost public men, as well as a man of 



500 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

large affairs in the industrial and financial world, was 
born at Penn Yan, New York, June 3, 1821. He was 
descended from Revolutionary stock, his forefathers 
having participated in the struggle by which Amer- 
ican independence was achieved. His father. Colonel 
William Lilly, left New York in 1838 and, with his 
family, settled in Mauch Chunk. General Lilly was 
but seventeen years of age at this time, but he imme- 
diately entered upon a life of industry and responsi- 
bility, being entrusted with the duties of a conductor 
on the Beaver Meadow Railroad. He also served as 
the coal shipping agent of this company at Penn 
Haven, which was then the head of the Lehigh Canal. 
His life henceforth was one of active business enter- 
prise. He soon entered into coal mining operations, 
being associated with Ario Pardee, J. Gillingham Fell 
and George B. Markle at Jeddo, and becoming a mem- 
ber of the firms of Lentz, Lilly & Company, and of 
L. A. Reilly & Company in the Schuylkill region. He 
was a director in the East Broad Top Railroad Com- 
pany, in the Highland Coal Company, in the Union 
Improvement Company, and in the Andover Iron Com- 
pany. General Lilly was also president of the Lehigh 
Emery "Wheel Company and of the Carbon Metallic 
Paint Company, besides holding a seat as a director 
in the First and Second National Banks of Mauch 
Chunk and of the First National Bank of Shenandoah. 
He was also one of the board of commissioners to lo- 
cate and build a state hospital for injured persons 
in the anthracite region. This institution, called the 
Miners' Hospital, is situated near Ashland, Schuyl- 
kill county, and was opened in 1884. He was one of the 
original trustees of this hospital and later became pres- 
ident of the board. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 501 

While General Lilly thus bore a prominent part in 
industrial and commercial affairs, he was more widely 
known for his services in public life. He first came 
into prominence in connection with the military estab- 
lishment of the state. At the age of twenty-one he 
enlisted in the ranks of the militia, and through suc- 
cessive promotions, arrived at the rank of colonel, 
and was finally appointed a brigadier general. 

General Lilly early affiliated with the Democratic 
party, and was elected to the state legislature of 
1850 and 1851, bearing such a conspicuous part in the 
work of the first session that at the beginning of the 
next, he became a prominent candidate for Speaker of 
the House, but was defeated by a few votes. Urgent 
business demands compelled him to decline a re-elec- 
tion to that body. 

It is related that while on a visit to Washington in 
1862, General Lilly met some of the leading Democrats 
of the country and became very much dissatisfied with 
their views on the war. Visiting the house of repre- 
sentatives, he found fifty-five Democratic congressmen 
voting against a war measure of vital importance to 
the cause of the Union. It was at this point that the 
General parted company with his party, going over to 
the fold of the Republican party, to which he gave his 
loyal allegiance during the remainder of his life. He 
served as a delegate at every important Republican 
convention held in the state and was also a delegate 
or alternate to every national Republican convention 
for twenty-five years. 

In 1868 General Lilly was a candidate for the guber- 
natorial nomination, receiving next to the highest vote 
on the last ballot. It was partly through his instru- 
mentality that the Pennsylvania state constitutional 
convention of 1872-73 was called, to which he was elect- 



502 HISTOEY or CAEBON COUNTY. 

ed as a delegate at large. At this convention which 
was composed of many of the most eminent men of the 
state, he bore a part equal to that of any of the mem- 
bers of that famous assemblage. 

General Lilly was elected as one of the congressmen 
at large for Pennsylvania for the Fifty-third Congress. 
As a member of that body he acquitted himself use- 
fully and honorably. A forceful speaker, he cherished 
no oratorical ambitions and spoke but seldom. He 
was reckoned, however, among the most industrious 
members of the House, and his services in the commit- 
tee room were of much value. 

As indicating his varied tastes and activities, it may 
be mentioned that he was a life member of the Acad- 
emy of Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia, and also of 
the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, besides being a member of the Society of 
American Mining Engineers. 

During the war he was a loyal friend of the Union 
soldiers, and supported a number of the families of 
his workmen who had volunteered. 

He was an active member of the Masonic fraternity 
for more than half a century, and held the position of 
Grand Master of Pennsylvania. 

He died suddenly at his residence in Mauch Chunk 
on December 1, 1893, in the seventy-second year of his 
age. He was preparing to go to Washington to take 
his seat at the beginning of the session of congress 
of that year when the final summons came. 

The usual tokens of respect were paid to his mem- 
ory in both branches of the national legislature, and 
his demise was sincerely mourned in the community in 
which he lived. 

Lindemuth, Theodore, postmaster of East Mauch 
Chunk, and an insurance man of that place, is the son 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 503 

of Jonathan and Catharine (Faust) Lindemuth, na- 
tives of Schuylkill county, Pa. 

His maternal grandfather, Jacob Faust, was the 
founder of the village of Barnesville, Schuylkill county, 
while his father, who was a contractor and lumberman, 
was the first postmaster of Mahanoy City. At that 
time the town was without railroads and the mail was 
carried to and from the place on horseback. 

Theodore Lindemuth was born at Barnesville, Jan- 
uary 2, 1855. 

Leaving school at the age of fifteen, he began life 
as a brakeman for the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Be- 
coming a locomotive engineer, he remained in the 
service of this company until the strike of 1893. Dur- 
ing the ensuing year he embarked in the business of 
life insurance, which he has since successfully followed. 

Mr. Lindemuth has lived in East Mauch Chunk 
since 1882. 

On January 24, 1883, he was united in marriage to 
Louisa, a daughter of Charles Zellner, of that town. 

His appointment as postmaster of the borough came 
on February 23, 1911. 

He has taken an active part in municipal affairs, 
having held most of the offices in the gift of the people 
of the community in which he lives. His political al- 
legiance is given to the Republican party, while he is 
identified with the Brotherhood of Locomotive En- 
gineers and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 
He is a communicant of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. 

Long, Dr. Wilson P., a Weatherly physician and 
surgeon was born in Longswamp township, Berks 
county. Pa., in 1861. 

Frederick Long, his great-grandfather was a Palat- 
inate immigrant. He fled from his native country to 



504 J HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

escape from the religious persecutions of the time, 
settling in Berks county on land which was deeded to 
him by the descendants of William Penn, the same be- 
ing now included in the township of Longswamp. 

In this freer and more hospitable environment he 
spent the remainder of his life in agricultural pursuits, 
being a man of influence in the community where he 
lived. 

His son, Daniel Long, who was also a farmer, be- 
came possessed of the homestead acquired by the fath- 
er. He married Rachel Snyder, a native of Montgom- 
ery county, Pa. 

David Long, one of their ten children, and the 
father of the subject of this notice, was born in Berks 
county in 1830. By his marriage to Floranda, daughter 
of John P. Fegley, of Shamrock, Berks county, five 
children were born: Mary, Celia, Amanda, Wilson, 
and Malazina Long. The father of this family was 
stricken with typhoid fever, of which he died in his 
thirty-fourth year. Subsequently his widow became 
the wife of William Butz, of Alburtis, Pa. Two of 
their four children survive : Rev. Charles Butz, a min- 
ister of the Reformed church, and William Butz, a 
farmer, of Mertztown, Pa. 

Dr. W. P. Long was less than three years of age 
when the death of his father occurred, and he was 
early thrown largely upon his own resources. 

When he was nine years of age he was taken into 
the family of his uncle, Samuel Long, of Mertztown, 
upon whose farm he labored and grew to maturity. 

Having gained a fair common school education, he 
later attended the Keystone State Normal School. 
During a period of three years he was engaged as a 
teacher. 

Choosing the profession of medicine, he was matric- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 505 

ulated in the medical department of the University of 
Pennsylvania, from which institution he was gradu- 
ated in 1886. Immediately thereafter he located at 
Weatherly, establishing himself in the practice of his 
profession, and soon gaining liberal recognition as 
a result of his ability and skill in diagnosing and treat- 
ing disease. He early discovered that a cheery pres- 
ence in the sick room is an important factor in the 
realm of therapeutics, and this has been one of the 
secrets of his success. 

In addition to his general practise, Dr. Long is the 
local medical examiner for several old line insurance 
companies, and is the official physician of the alms- 
house of the Middle Coal Field Poor District, which 
position he has filled for more than a decade. 

As an aid to keeping abreast of the times in matters 
affecting his profession, he has affiliated himself with 
the Carbon County Medical Society, the Lehigh Valley 
Medical Society, the State Medical Association, and 
the American Medical Society. 

Aside from his calling as a physician. Dr. Long fig- 
ures actively in various phases of the life of the bor- 
ough in which he lives. He was one of the organiz- 
ers of the Weatherly Foundry and Machine Company, 
of which he is a principal stockholder, being also a di- 
rector of the company and serving as its secretary. 
He is similarly identified with the First National Bank 
of Weatherly. Besides this he has an interest in a 
mining enterprise at Hancock, Pa., which supplies the 
C. K. Williams Paint Mills at Easton with ochre, and 
he is a director and stockholder of the Allen Candy 
Manufacturing Company, of Weatherly. 

In 1892 he was elected to the office of coroner of 
Carbon county on the Republican ticket, serving for 
a single term. 



506 I HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Being a warm friend of the public school system, 
he has repeatedly been chosen to serve as a member 
of the board of education of the borough, of which he 
has been the president. He was chairman of the build- 
ing committee in the erection of the Schwab school 
building. 

For some years he was the musical director of the 
Reformed church of the town, of which he is now an 
elder. Fraternally he is identified with the Patriotic 
Order of Sons of America, the Grand Commandery of 
Pennsylvania, the order of Modern Woodmen, and the 
Free and Accepted Masons. 

Dr. Long was married on August 2, 1886, to Clara 
Boyer, of Reading, Pa. She died May 1, 1901, leaving 
two sons, William S. and Albert F. Long. Both are 
graduates of Ursinus College, from which the former 
received the degree of A. B. and the latter that of B. S. 
William is now a student in the medical department of 
the University of Pennsylvania, while Albert is a 
teacher at Kyle Military Institute, Flushing, Long Is- 
land. 

Loose, Jacob C, a leading member of the Carbon 
county bar, was born at Myerstown, Lebanon county, 
Pa., on July 6, 1866. 

He is the son of Jacob A. and Emma E. (Spangler) 
Loose, his father having followed the mercantile busi- 
ness at Palmyra, Pa., for many years. Attending the 
Palmyra Academy he subsequently entered Dickinson 
College, where he pursued a classical course, gradu- 
ating from that institution in 1887. 

Choosing the law as his profession, he studied in the 
offices of the well-known firm of Craig and Loose, at 
Mauch Chunk, comprised of the late 4Judge Allen 
Craig and the late James S. Loose, an uncle of the 
subject of this sketch. 




'^f-^C^^^^^^t^^^^c^ 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 507 

Upon his admission to the bar in January, 1890, 
he opened an office at Mauch Chunk, where he prac- 
tised his profession for about eighteen months. 

Removing to Shenandoah, Va., he built up a practise 
there and was elected mayor of the town. In 1897 he 
returned to Mauch Chunk to become a member of the 
firm of Loose, Craig and Loose. Upon the death of 
his uncle, in July, 1898, the firm became Craig and 
Loose, the other partner being Douglas Craig, a son 
of the late Judge Allen Craig. 

On November 17, 1892, during his stay in the South, 
Mr. Loose was united in marriage with Alice M., daugh- 
ter of Henry A. Bear and his wife, Betty, of Bear 
Lithia Springs, Va. Their only son is Alan S. Loose, 
born March 16, 1899. Another son, James B., died in 
infancy. 

Mr. Loose is identified with the Pennsylvania Bar 
Association, and the Common Law League of America. 
He is a member of the board of trustees of the Dim- 
mick Memorial Library, and of the Odd Fellows' Hall 
Association, of Mauch Chunk, and is one of the war- 
dens of St. John's Episcopal church, of East Mauch 
Chunk, which is his place of residence. He also holds 
the position of borough solicitor in the latter place. 
Mr. Loose is a Republican. The success which has 
come to him in his calling has been achieved by clean 
and honorable methods. 

Luckenbach, Edwin F., who for many years served 
as postmaster of Mauch Chunk, where he was a rep- 
resentative business man, was born near Bethlehem, 
Northampton county. Pa., on October 11, 1842. 

He was the son of Renautus and Catherine (Boyer) 
Luckenbach. His father, who in early life had been 
a blacksmith, later became a boat builder and followed 
the mercantile career. His mother was a descendant of 



508 '■ HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Isaac Boyer, one of the pioneer settlers of Northamp- 
ton county. Both father and mother died during the 
seventies in Kansas, where they spent their declining 
years. 

At the age of seventeen E. F. Luckenbach was ap- 
prenticed to a house, sign and decorative painter, 
named Anton Goth, of Bethlehem. His apprenticeship 
expired on August 3, 1862. On tlie same day he en- 
listed in the service of the Union, being enrolled as a 
private in Company C, One Hundred and Twenty- 
ninth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. This regi- 
ment was commanded by Colonel Jacob G. Frick, and 
was assigned to the Army of the Potomac, becoming 
a part of E. B. Tyler's First Brigade of Humphrey's 
Third Division, Fifth Army Corps. Mr. Luckenbach 
participated in the battles of Fredericksburg and 
Chancellorsville, and on May 18, 1863, at the expira- 
tion of his term of service, was honorably discharged. 

In 1864 he located permanently in Mauch Chunk, at 
first devoting his energies to the trade he had learned. 
On January 1, 1871, he established a stationery, wall 
paper and paint store at No. 61 Broadway; this he 
successfully managed in connection with his other in- 
terests during the remainder of his life. 

In 1865 he was married to Miss Mary A. DeRemer, 
a daughter of Peter and Mary M. (Quick) DeRemer. 
Four children were born to them: Albert H., Hattie 
L., wife of A. W. Hooke; William F. and Charles E. 

Mr. Luckenbach was one of the prime movers in the 
organization of the Upper Mauch Chunk Water Com- 
pany in 1872. Being elected as its secretary, he con- 
tinued in that capacity for forty years. In March, 
1899, President McKinley appointed him as postmast- 
er of Mauch Chunk, the duties of which position he 
discharged with energy and ability until his death, 
which occurred on March 3, 1912. 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 509 

Mr. Luckenbach was at one time a member of the 
town council of Mauch Chunk and served as its secre- 
tary. He was also a charter member of L. F. Chapman 
Post, No. 61, Grand Army of the Republic, twice 
serving as its commander, while being identified with 
the Royal Arcanum and the Benevolent and Protective 
Order of Elks. 

As a citizen he was public spirited and progressive, 
always actively co-operating in any movement calcu- 
lated to promote the welfare of the town of his adop- 
tion. 

As a mark of respect to his memory, all business was 
suspended in Mauch Chunk on the day of his funeral. 

Luther, Dr. John W., who is at the head of the 
Palmerton Hospital, the only institution of its kind 
situated in Carbon county, is a native of Berks county, 
having been born in the city of Reading, May 21, 1875. 
His family originally came from Lancaster county. 
Peter Luther, a Lancaster county druggist was his 
paternal grandfather, while William Behm, a Reading 
hotel man, was his maternal grandfather. Martin and 
Diller Luther, brothers of Peter Luther, were promi- 
nent medical practitioners in Berks county. 

Thomas M., the father of John W. Luther, was a 
native of Reading, while his brother, R. C. Luther, de- 
ceased, of Pottsville, was the superintendent of the 
Philadelphia & Reading Coal and Iron Company and 
was first vice president of that corporation. 

Doctor Luther is a graduate of the Reading high 
school, class of 1894. After spending a year at Drexel 
Institute, Philadelphia, he entered the medical de- 
partment of the University of Pennsylvania, from 
which institution he graduated in 1809. He then 
served as interne at the Reading Hospital for nine 
months, later holding the same position at the Univer- 



510 ) HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

sity Hospital for eighteen months. For one year he 
was the chief resident physician in the same institution, 
after which he practiced his profession on his own 
account in Philadelphia. He was appointed instructor 
in gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania and 
was assistant gynecologist at the University Hospital, 
as well as obstetrician at the Maternity Hospital. 

In January, 1908, Doctor Luther took charge of the 
Palmerton Hospital, having since been apjDointed as 
a surgeon of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. 

When Palmerton was organized as a borough, in 
1912, he was honored in being chosen as the first chief 
burgess of the town. He is also the president of the 
Palmerton Co-operative Association, president of the 
Carbon County Medical Society, secretary of the Le- 
high Valley Medical Association, and holds member- 
ship in the Pennsylvania Medical Society and in the 
American Medical Association. 

He belongs to Slatington Lodge, Free and Accepted 
Masons, and attends the Lutheran church. His wife 
was Aletta A. Artley, of Savannah, Ga., whom he mar- 
ried in July, 1903. 

Mack, William B., who was one of the pioneer resi- 
dents of East Mauch Chunk, and a railroad man of 
many years' experience, was born in Ulster county, 
New York, September 15, 1825. His parents were 
George and Margaret (Boggs) Mack, the father being 
a well-known contractor. 

Coming to Mauch Chunk when a boy, the subject of 
this memoir began life as a printer in the newspaper 
offices of that place. 

His long career as a railroad man began in 1845, 
when he entered the service of the Beaver Meadow 
Railroad, being appointed as its road master about 
five years later. When this company was absorbed by 




P^T/3.h? o^eJO 








yj-'t^ 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 511 

the Lehigh Valley he continued in the service of the 
latter, and in 1869 his authority as road master was 
extended to include the Mahanoy Division. He retired 
about 1893, after a continuous service of nearly half a 
century. 

When Mr. Mack built his residence in East Mauch 
Chunk there were but four or five other houses in the 
place. His connection with the financial interests of 
Mauch Chunk antedated the establishment of the na- 
tional banking system. He was a director of the old 
Mauch Chunk Bank, which was organized in 1855, and 
was similarly identified with the First National Bank 
of Mauch Chunk and the Mauch Chunk National Bank, 
of which the first named institution was the prede- 
cessor. He was also associated with the Mauch Chunk 
Water Company for many years, serving as its presi- 
dent. 

In 1859 Mr. Mack was united in marriage to Jean, 
daughter of James R. and Ellen B. (Tolan) Struthers, 
of Mauch Chunk. Her father was a prominent lawyer, 
and was the first district attorney of Carbon county. 
They became the parents of eight children, three of 
whom survive. 

Mr. Mack departed this life on February 16, 1911, in 
the eighty-sixth year of his age. 

Martyn, John, Sr., for many years identified with the 
coal mining industry in Carbon and the neighboring 
counties of Schuylkill and Luzerne, a prominent 
churchman and Sunday school worker, and one of Car- 
bon county's grand old men, was born in St. Hillary 
Parish, Cornwall, England, May 16, 1832. His grand- 
father was Roger Martyn, a mining engineer, while 
his father, John Martyn, was a mine captain in Corn- 
wall. He was born in 1805, and, at the age of twenty- 
three, was united in wedlock to Mary Gilbert. They 



512 \ HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

became the parents of four children: Samuel, John, 
Elizabeth T., who became the wife of William Carter, 
and Mary, who died in infancy. 

Samuel was the first postmaster of Audenried, and 
died while serving his third term as the superintendent 
of public schools of Prince William county, Virginia. 
The father of the family died in 1844. 

John Martyn attended the parish schools in the place 
of his birth until he became twelve years of age, when 
he entered the copper mines, where he worked until his 
sixteenth year, when, in the spring of 1848, he accom- 
panied the rest of the family to America. They set- 
tled in Tamaqua, Schuylkill county ; John there became 
a practical miner, being employed in that capacity for 
ten years. He then went to Stockton, Luzerne county, 
where he became inside foreman for the firm of Packer, 
Carter & Company. At the expiration of four years 
Mr. Martyn was made the general superintendent of 
Coleraine colliery, removing to Beaver Meadows, in 
1862. This position he held for eight years, when he 
became a member of the firm of Ely, Martyn & Com- 
pany, securing a lease from Coxe Brothers & Company, 
and opening and developing a coal property near Bea- 
ver Meadows. 

At the end of several years Mr. Martyn disposed of 
his interest in this venture to the remaining members 
of the firm, again assuming the superintendency of the 
colliery at Coleraine for a short period. 

Since 1883 he has lived in partial retirement, look- 
ing after his real estate interests in Beaver Meadows, 
and being occasionally called upon to pass expert judg- 
ment on coal properties, both in the anthracite and the 
bituminous fields. 

Mr. Martyn has been thrice wedded. His first wife 
was Jane Carter, a daughter of William Carter, a well- 





"^Le^t^^nM^-^ 



HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 513 

known coal oi^erator. The children of this marriage 
were : John, who became an accountant and telegraph 
operator; he died in 1898; William C, of Allentown; 
Mary T., widow of Samuel Graham; Margaret, who 
became the wife of Hon. Thomas H. Williams; she 
died in 1892; Grace C, who is the second wife of 
Thomas H. Williams; Charles S., a Dauphin county 
johysician, and Jane Martyn, residing in Hazleton. 

Mrs. Martyn died in 1871, and two years later Mr. 
Martyn became the husband of Elizabeth W. Jeffries, 
of Philadelphia, who passed away ten years subse- 
quent to that date. 

In 1886 Mr. Martyn wedded Susanna E. Thompson, 
a daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth Thompson, of 
Berwick, Pa. 

He has been an independent in politics, refusing to 
kneel at the shrine of party regularity, but has always 
been a militant foe of the liquor traffic. In 1886 he was 
the Republican nominee for the office of associate judge 
of Carbon county, but was defeated by a narrow mar- 
gin. He has repeatedly been chosen as a delegate to 
the state and national conventions of the Prohibition 
party. 

Mr. Martyn has been a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church since 1848, while he has been elected 
and served as superintendent of the Sunday school of 
that denomination at Beaver Meadows for forty-five 
consecutive years. 

For several years past Mr. and Mrs. Martyn have 
spent their winters in Florida. 

Masonheimer, Rev. A. M., Ph.D., pastor of Salem's 
Reformed church at Weatherly, is the son of John 
Masonheimer, a native of the Palatinate, who emi- 
grated to America in 1827, establishing his home in 



514 , HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Lehigh county. He was married to Barbara Rockel, a 
native Pennsylvanian, and they had seven children. 

Alfred M. Masonheimer was born near Allentown, 
Lehigh county, October 25, 1853. Leaving the public 
schools at the age of twelve years, he drove a horse 
and cart about the iron mines near his home until he 
reached the age of sixteen. He then attended the Key- 
stone State Normal School and Palatinate College. 

After teaching school for a number of years, he en- 
tered Ursinus College. Later matriculating at Yale 
University, he was graduated from that institution 
with the degree of B.D. The degree of doctor of phil- 
osophy, pro merito, has been conferred upon him by 
Allegheny College. 

Being licensed to preach the gospel in 1880, he was 
stationed for a year at Orange, Vermont. In 1881 he 
accepted a call to the Weatherly charge of the Reform- 
ed church, which also includes St. Matthew's church, in 
Packer township, and St. John's Reformed church at 
Rockport. He preaches at the two last named places 
on alternate Sundays. 

During his long pastorate Doctor Masonheimer has 
left a lasting impression on the lives and characters of 
the people among whom he has labored, his broad, sym- 
pathetic and kindly nature, coupled with thorough 
equipment for his work, peculiarly qualifying him for 
the discharge of his duties as a pastor. 

He has also been greatly aided and strengthened in 
carrying out his life's work by the ministrations of a 
sensible and devoted wife who always faithfully assists 
him in his pastoral duties, and who is greatly beloved 
by all who know her. She bore the maiden name of 
Catharine Rittcr, being a daughter of Jeremiah and 
Lucy Ritter, of Egypt, Lehigh county, Pa. Their mar- 
riage was solemnized on March 25, 1881. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 515 

Since coming to Weatherly, Eev. Masonheimer has 
administered the rite of baptism to eleven hundred and 
seventy persons, confirmed nine hundred and thirty- 
five, and performed over five hundred marriages. He 
has also conducted nearly seven hundred and fifty fu- 
nerals. The total membership of his charge is six hun- 
dred. 

He has interested himself, too, in the business and 
industrial welfare of the borough, being a director of 
the First National Bank, and having a voice in the af- 
fairs of the Weatherly Foundry and Machine Com- 
pany, the Weatherly Water Company, and other con- 
cerns. 

He is a member of Hazle Lodge, No. 327, Free and 
Accepted Masons, of Hazleton, and of Sodi Lodge, No. 
80, Knights of Pythias, of Weatherly. 

Mr. and Mrs. Masonheimer are the parents of three 
children, all of whom are graduates of the Weatherly 
high school. Elva, the eldest is also a graduate o^ 
the Allentown College for Women, and is now a teach- 
er in the public schools of Weatherly. Williard is a 
product of Lafayette College, and is at present a stu- 
dent in the medical department of the University of 
Pennsylvania. Alfred, having graduated at the Hazle- 
ton high school, is now a sophomore at Franklin and 
Marshall College. 

McCabe, P. H., principal of the schools of East 
Mauch Chunk and one of the successful educators of 
Carbon county, was born at Nesquehoning, April 6, 
1857. His father was Patrick McCabe, who was born 
in County Cavan, Ireland, in 1820. He emigrated to 
the United States in 1849, locating in New York city, 
where for a number of years he supported himself by 
doing clerical work. Coming to Nesquehoning he be- 



516 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

came a coal miner, which occupation he followed the re- 
mainder of his life. 

He was married to Mrs. Sarah Bradwell, a native 
of Sunderland, England. She came to America in 1832. 
James, deceased, and Patrick, were their only children. 

Patrick H. McCabe received his elementary educa- 
tion in the schools of Nesquehoning, and at the age of 
fourteen entered the mines. In 1876 he went to Mil- 
lersville State Normal School, after which he taught 
school for a number of terms. Later he attended Val- 
paraiso University, where he graduated in the Latin 
scientific course with the class of 1883. He is also a 
graduate of Eastman Business College, of Poughkeep- 
sie, N. Y. 

Prof. McCabe has devoted all his time and energies 
since reaching man's estate to educational work. He 
taught school at Coalport, Summit Hill and at Nesque- 
honing, serving for thirteen years at the last named 
place. For eighteen years he has been principal at 
East Mauch Chunk, and the schools under his supervi- 
sion have steadily increased in efficiency and excellence 
during that period, the majority of the graduates lead- 
ing successful lives in their various fields of endeavor. 

On June 30, 1887, Mr. McCabe was wedded to Emma 
Grover, daughter of Nathan Grover, of East Mauch 
Chunk. A boy and a girl, both of whom died in in- 
fancy, were born to them. 

McCay, William N., who was a well-known resident 
of Banks township, was born at Americus, Ga., on 
March 6, 1851, the son of Isaiah R. and Jane M. 
(Eighter) McCay. He was a relative of Charles Fran- 
cis McCay, the noted American astronomer. 

His father was a physician and when William was 
four years of age the family removed to Beaver Mea- 
dow, Carbon county, where the doctor practised his 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. i 517 

profession for a short time. His death occurred in 
Mexico, in 1857, whither he had gone on a mission for 
the United States government. 

In early life, William McCay was employed on an 
engineering corps of the Lehigh Valley Railroad at 
Hazleton. Subsequently he served for a time as a clerk 
in the store of W. T. Carter and Company at Beaver 
Meadow. Later he became a foreman at Coleraine col- 
liery, operated by the same firm, continuing in that ca- 
pacity for nearly a quarter of a century. For a long 
period he also served as the general store-keeper at 
this operation, now owned by the estate of A. S. Van 
Wickle. 

On October 28, 1874, he was married to Mary, a 
daughter of George Reinmiller, of Beaver Meadow. 
They became the parents of four sons and three daugh- 
ters. 

Mr. McCay was a man of broad sympathies and 
many fine personal traits. He died on September 5, 
1910. 

McCormick, David, editor and owner of the Lehigh- 
ton Press and postmaster of Lehighton, was born at 
Hickory Run, Carbon county, on April 21, 1873. He 
is the son of William C. and Elizabeth (Arnold) Mc- 
Cormick, and has lived in Lehighton virtually all his 
life. 

He acquired his education in the public schools of 
the borough, and early manifested a liking for news- 
paper work. When but a lad of fifteen he entered the 
service of 0. B. Sigley, the well-known Mauch Chunk 
printer and newspaper man, as an apprentice. Having 
mastered the art which he chose to follow, he proceed- 
ed to Philadelphia, where he was employed for a year 
as a journeyman, after which he returned to accept a 
position as foreman and local reporter for Mr. Sigley. 



518 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

After a period of two years, he was induced to take the 
place of foreman for the Lehighton Press, which had 
then but recently been established ; this position he held 
for two years. 

Having, by this time, attained a thorough and practi- 
cal knowledge of the business in its various details, and 
being possessed of energy and ambition, Mr. McCor- 
mick, on November 16, 1896, purchased the Press and 
the printing establishment that was conducted in con- 
nection therewith. He immediately proceeded to build 
up and improve the property of which he was now the 
sole owner, and his efforts have been crowned with 
excellent results. Not only has the paper been enlarged 
to twice its former size, but its circulation has been 
more than trebled since he assumed control. 

Mr. McCormick was the first to introduce the type- 
setting and folding machine in Carbon county, while 
his establishment has facilities for job printing that 
would do credit to the plant of a larger town than Le- 
highton. 

The Press is issued weekly, and faithfully mirrors 
the important happenings of the region in which it 
circulates. The trenchant pen of its editor has given 
the paper a commanding position among the journals 
of the Lehigh Valley. 

Mr. McCormick was appointed postmaster of Le- 
highton early during the year 1911 ; immediately upon 
assuming the duties of the office, his progressive spirit 
was made manifest in the remodeling of the interior of 
the postoffice and in the introduction of new furnish- 
ings and a more modern equipment, adding to the com- 
fort and convenience of the employes of the office and 
the public alike. 

He has been an active member of Lehighton 's oldest 
fire company for many years, being the treasurer of 





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Capt. Wilijam C. McCormick. 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. j 5^9 

that organization ; he is also a member of the Masonic 
order, of the Sons of Veterans, and of various other 
organizations. 

On October 14, 1896, Mr. McCormick was married 
to Bertha HoUenbach, daughter of Elias F. and Mary 
Hollenbach. Their children are : Robert D. and Mary 
E. McCormick. 

McCormick, William C, a veteran of the Civil War, 
and a foremost citizen of Lehighton, was the son of 
David McCormick, who was of Irish birth, but the de- 
scendant of a Welsh and Scotch ancestry. 

David McCormick was born in the year 1800, immi- 
grating to America at the age of twenty-eight, and set- 
tling in New Jersey. He assisted in constructing the 
Morris Canal, connecting the Delaware river with the 
harbor of New York, and was subsequently appointed 
to the superintendency of the canal, which was more 
than a hundred miles in length. In 1851 he came to 
Carbon county, being thereafter engaged in the lumber 
business. He married Mary Lockwood, a native of 
Connecticut, who was thirteen years his junior, and 
who bore him six sons and two daughters. The father 
of these children died on March 23, 1854, while his 
wife survived him nearly half a century, passing away 
April 28, 1900. 

William C. McCormick was born in New Jersey on 
March 23, 1834. He was educated in his native town, 
where he grew to maturity, and, in 1851, he removed 
with the family of his father to Carbon county, where 
for a short period he followed lumbering. Later he 
learned the trade of a wheelwright, which he pursued 
successfully for some years. 

He saw service in the cause of the Union during the 
Civil War under two separate enlistments. He was 
first a member of the One Hundred and Eighty-eighth 



520 i HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Eegiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, and upon re-en- 
listing on March 16, 1864, was enrolled as a private in 
Company G, Third Regiment Pennsylvania Heavy 
Artillery, which was attached to the Army of the 
James. He was soon advanced to the rank of quarter- 
master sergeant, being subsequently commissioned by 
Governor Curtin as a second lieutenant, with the rank 
of captain, though he never served in that capacity, due 
to the fact that the opportunity did not present itself 
before his discharge, in November, 1865. 

He was one of the number to whom was assigned the 
duty of guarding Jefferson Davis during the time when 
the president of the fallen Confederacy was confined 
as a prisoner in Fortress Monroe. The calm resigna- 
tion and lofty fortitude displayed by the former south- 
ern leader in his hour of defeat and humiliation excited 
the admiration of Cajotain McCormick, between whom 
and Davis a feeling of mutual respect and friendship 
sprang up. 

Mr. McCormick held most of the offices in the gift of 
the people of Kidder township, where he lived prior to 
his removal to Lehighton in 1876. During his resi- 
dence here he also filled many positions of trust and 
responsibility. He was a member of town council for 
nine years, and served for the same period of time on 
the school board, of which he was the president for a 
time. He was elected to the office of burgess of Le- 
highton in 1906. In the discharge of the various duties 
of these offices, his conduct was always characterized 
by progressiveness and a desire for the public good. 

For more than twenty-five years Captain McCormick 
was prominently identified with the Lehigh Valley 
Emery Wheel Company, which was engaged in the 
manufacture of emery and corundum wheels at Weiss- 
port. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 521 

He was married on Augnst 20, 1860, to Elizabeth 
Arnold, a native of Monroe county, who was born May 
28, 1832. They became the parents of the following 
children : Agnes, deceased ; James, deceased ; Thomas, 
deceased; William, Edwin, Mary E., David, Amanda 
A., and Ann, deceased. The mother of these children 
died on August 27, 1880, and on December 22, 1881, 
Mr. McCormick wedded Emma E. Christman. Two 
children were born of this union: Lillian and Ella 
McCormick. 

Captain McCormick was a member of the Masonic 
fraternity, and was honored with the position of com- 
mander of the Lehighton Post of the Grand Army of 
the Republic. His death occurred on March 14, 1909. 

McGinley, John J., clerk of courts of Carbon county, 
is a native of Summit Hill, where he was born on Jan- 
uary 10, 1877. He is one of the ten children of Dennis 
and Bridget (McCullion) McGinley. His father, who 
was a miner, died in 1894 of the complaint which short- 
ens the lives of so many underground toilers, — miners' 
asthma. 

John left school at the age of eleven years to earn 
his livelihood as a slate picker on the breaker. Subse- 
quently he availed himself of the opportunity of at- 
tending night school, however. Having grown to ma- 
turity, he became a brakeman on the Panther Creek 
Valley Railroad. Unfortunately, in 1903, while put- 
ting on a brake, the chain broke, and he was precipi- 
tated to the roadbed, having both legs cut off. After 
many legal delays, subterfuges, and court trials, he 
finally succeeded, in 1912, in placing the responsibility 
for the accident upon the company owning the car, and 
was awarded a substantial verdict. 

In 1906 Mr. McGinley was chosen as tax collector of 
Summit Hill, and three years later he was elected as 



522 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

the Democratic candidate to the office of clerk of courts, 
which he is now filling. 

He is a member of St. Joseph's Catholic church, of 
Summit Hill. Of his brothers and sisters, Katie and 
Edward alone survive. They live at Summit Hill, 
which is also the home of his widowed mother. 

McMahon, Patrick J., landlord and owner of the 
Eagle Hotel at Nesquehoning, was born in County 
Cavan, Ireland, on October 10, 1861, the son of John 
and Margaret (McGarry) McMahon. The family came 
to the United States in 1863, settling at Nesquehoning. 

At the age of nine years Patrick began life as a slate 
picker. During his eighteenth year he went to Provi- 
dence, R. I., where he learned the trade of a carpenter, 
which he pursued until 1896. He then purchased the 
hotel at Nesquehoning which he is now conducting. 
This is one of the best known landmarks in the town, 
and was built by Andrew McCabe about seventy years 
ago. 

Since Mr. McMahon acquired the ownership of the 
hotel, it has been entirely refitted and modernized, 
making it one of the most homelike and popular hostel- 
ries between Mauch Chunk and Tamaqua. It adjoins 
the spot where St. Patrick's Roman Catholic church 
formerly stood. 

Miller, George W., one of Weatherly's oldest and 
best known merchants, the son of George and Eve 
(Kocher) Miller, was born in Maine township, Colum- 
bia county. Pa., on December 15, 1844. His grand- 
father, Henry Miller, was a farmer, following that oc- 
cupation first in Berks county and later in Columbia. 
The farm which he owned in the latter county is still 
in possession of his descendants. His son, George, 
the father of the subject of this notice, who was also a 
farmer, was born in 1803. He became the father of 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. i 523 

•ixteen children, and he served for three terms as a 
member of the board of commissioners of Columbia 
county. 

George W. Miller grew to manhood on his father's 
farm. He was educated in the public schools and at 
Greenwood Seminary, near Bloomsburg. Later he 
pursued a course of study at Lowell 's Commercial Col- 
lege, Binghampton, N. Y. 

After teaching school for several terms, he came to 
Weatherly in 1869, entering the employ of J. G. Eadie 
as a clerk, and so continuing for a period of ten years. 
He then purchased the general store which had pre- 
viously been conducted jointly by Edward Wilson and 
Edward and Samuel Harleman, in Oak Hall. Three 
years subsequently he erected a large, modern brick 
building for the accommodation of his growing busi- 
ness, gaining a larger patronage than any other mer- 
chant in the town. In 1904 the Miller Store Company 
was organized. Mr. Miller is a member of this com- 
pany, which continues the business he founded. 

Aside from this, he has always retained a fondness 
for agricultural pursuits, and he owns several acres of 
land on the western verge of the borough which he has 
under high cultivation, growing truck and small fruits 
with splendid success. 

He has held various offices in the gift of the people 
of Weatherly, and he served for the term of three years 
as a member of the directorate of the Middle Coal 
Field Poor District. 

On October 8, 1873, he was married to Sarah, the 
daughter of Philip Ginter, Her great-grandfather dis- 
covered coal at Summit Hill in the year 1791. She died 
in 1894, and on October 8, 1895, Mr. Miller wedded 
Huldah Gerhard. 



524 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

He is a supporter of the principles of Democracy, 
and is identified with the Knights of Pythias, the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Improved Order 
of Red Men, and the Free and Accepted Masons, being 
also a member of the Presbyterian church. 

Morgan, Morgan 0., general inside foreman of the 
mines in the Nesquehoning district, is the son of Mor- 
gan D. and Mary (Price) Morgan, natives of Merthyr 
Tidvil, Wales. 

His parents came to America in 1857, first locating 
at Ashland, Schuylkill county. Pa. Soon thereafter 
the family removed to Summit Hill, where the father 
was killed in the mines in 1861. 

Morgan 0. Morgan was born at Summit Hill on Oc- 
tober 7, 1861, becoming a breadwinner in the capacity 
of a slate picker at the age of eight years. His life 
since then has been spent in and about the mines of the 
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. 

Coming to Nesquehoning in 1887, he was appointed 
as a mine foreman in 1893. He has held his present 
position since 1907. Mr. Morgan is recognized as one 
of the leading practical authorities on mining in this 
portion of the coal region, and his youthful appearance 
would scarcely indicate that his experience covers a 
period of more than forty years. 

In 1879 he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of 
Jenkin E. Jenkins, of Summit Hill. Their children are : 
John, George, Jane, wife of Roy Stowell, of Harris- 
burg, Pa.; Morgan D., Adella, wife of Roy Reich, of 
Summit Hill ; Stanley and Edith. 

Anna, their first-born, died in 1906, at the age of 
twenty-five. She was a graduate of Kutztown State 
Normal School, and of the Neff College of Oratory. 
She was a school teacher and was a talented elocution- 
ist. 





rL^ 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. , 525 

Mr. Morgan has taken an active interest in politics, 
and is well-known in Eepublican circles, being now a 
member of the county executive committee of that 
party. He served for six years as a member of the 
Mauch Chunk township school board, and was elected 
for a single term as a member of the board of auditors 
of the Middle Coal Field Poor District. 

Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order, 
the Knights of Pythias, and the Benevolent and Pro- 
tective Order of Elks. 

Morthimer, George W., owner and publisher of the 
Evening Leader, the only daily newspaper published in 
Lehighton, is a son of the late Harry Vernon Morthi- 
mer, who for many years was one of Carbon county's 
prominent journalists. The elder Morthimer was born 
in Edinburgh, Scotland, March 17, 1828, coming to the 
United States at the age of ten years, and locating in 
New York city. He began life as an assistant steward 
on a sailing vessel, in which capacity he traversed the 
seven seas. Returning to the city of his adoption, he 
entered the newspaper field, serving under Greeley on 
the New York Tribune and on other metropolitan 
papers. During the decade of the fifties he came to 
Mauch Chunk, where he married Elizabeth Williams, a 
daughter of George Williams. 

At the breaking out of the Civil War, Mr. Morthimer 
enlisted in Company H, One Hundred and Twelfth 
Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, serving 
practically through the whole war as quartermaster 
sergeant. On the close of hostilities he returned to 
Mauch Chunk and worked on the Coal Gazette, after 
which he started a paper known as the Union Flag, a 
weekly, which was subsequently purchased by General 
Charles Albright and absorbed by the Gazette. Mr. 
Morthimer then filled positions as reporter and editor 



526 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

on various publications in Wilkes-Barre, Scranton and 
other towns in the coal regions. In association with 
George E. Boyle he launched a daily paper in Hazleton 
termed the Miners' Daily Advocate, which lived for a 
number of years. Returning to Carbon county he man- 
aged the Weekly News at Lehighton for a time, estab- 
lishing the Carbon Advocate in 1872, which paper he 
owned and published until 1902, when it was sold to 
P. M. Graul, the present owner. 

Mr. Morthimer was the father of thirteen children, 
of whom the following survive: Harry, William, 
George, Thomas, Ralph, Melville and Jennie, who is 
the wife of John Lerch, of Cherryville, Pa. 

George W. Morthimer was born April 2, 1866, at 
Mauch Chunk, and was educated in the schools of Le- 
highton, becoming a worker in his father's office at the 
age of ten years. At sixteen he had so far progressed 
as to warrant his father in placing him in practical 
charge of the Advocate. 

Mr. Morthimer made two unsuccessful attempts to 
establish an evening journal in Lehighton. For about 
eighteen months he conducted the Truth, a small week- 
ly, at Lehighton, one of the features of which was his- 
torical and biographical sketches of local interest 
throughout Carbon county. It was absorbed by the 
Advocate. 

The Evening Leader was established by Mr. Mor- 
thimer July 19, 1902, as a six-column daily, and in six 
months was enlarged to seven columns. This paper 
is newsy, well-edited and is popular as an advertising 
medium. 

Mr. Morthimer is of Democratic persuasion, and has 
been prominent in the councils of his party for years. 
He was elected as auditor of Carbon county in 1893, 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 527 

and has served as secretary of the borough council of 
Lehighton and as a member of the school board. 

In 1903 he was chosen burgess of Lehighton, while 
in 1909 he was returned to the same office without op- 
position. Mr. Morthimer was also assistant postmas- 
ter of Lehighton during Cleveland 's first term. 

He is a member of the Masonic order and of the 
Eagles, while he was one of the organizers of the Le- 
highton board of commerce. 

On December 8, 1891, he was married to Margie I. 
Hunsinger, of Tremont, Schuylkill county. Guy V. 
Morthimer is the only offspring of their marriage. 
He is associated with his father in the conduct of the 
Leader. 

Mulhearn, Dennis C, a Mauch Chunk merchant and 
a veteran of the Civil War, is the son of John and 
Annie (Sweeney) Mulhearn, both natives of Ireland, 
who emigrated to this country in 1835. 

The subject of this sketch was born at Mauch Chunk 
on December 7, 1846, the third of a family of six chil- 
dren. He early left school to become a slate picker on 
the breaker at Hacklebernie, later becoming a boatman 
on the Lehigh Canal. 

In 1863 he ran away from home and joined Company 
E, Thirty-fourth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer 
Infantry, becoming a drummer boy. 

Being discharged from the service at the solicitation 
of his parents, he re-enlisted in the spring of 1864 as a 
member of the Third Regiment, Pennsylvania Cavalry, 
attached to the Army of the Potomac. Sharing the 
fortunes of his regiment in all its movements, opera- 
tions and engagements, which included the battles of 
Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Reams Station and the 
siege of Petersburg, he was honorably discharged on 



528 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

November 25, 1864, as a result of the exercise of the 
same influence as before. 

Returning to civil life, he became a brakeman on the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad. In 1867 he went west, assist- 
ing in the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. 

Coming back to Pennsylvania, he was employed in 
the operating department of the Lehigh Valley Rail- 
road until 1880. He then established himself as a deal- 
er in general merchandise in the town of his nativity, 
as he is still engaged. 

Mr. Mulhearn occupied his present location on West 
Broadway in 1883. An old Irish lady, who was a satis- 
fied customer, designated his establishment as '*Stohr 
Unric," the Celtic equivalent of ''honest store." By 
this name it has since been known, and the aim of its 
owner has ever been that the name should be expres- 
sive of the fact. 

On December 25, 1870, Mr. Mulhearn was united in 
marriage to Annie, daughter of James and Bridget 
McBride, of East Mauch Chunk. Their children are: 
John and Sarah, deceased; Edward J., Sallie, wife of 
Patrick Dolan, of Hazleton; Hanna S., the wife of 
Charles Scott, of Hazleton; Mary A., Bridget and 
Annie, the two latter being deceased. 

Mr. Mulhearn is a member and past commander of 
Chapman Post, No. 61, G. A. R. He is a communicant 
of the Roman Catholic church, and is identified with 
the Knights of Columbus. 

Hon. E. M. Mulhearn, the well-known Mauch Chunk 
lawyer, is his brother. 

Mulhearn, Hon. E. M. One of the most widely 
known of Carbon county's native sons, and one who is 
everywhere esteemed for his qualities of mind and 
heart, as well as for his gifts of utterance, is E. M. 
Mulhearn, Esq. 



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HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 529 

He has held many positions of honor and trust with- 
in the gift of the people of the county and of those of 
the borough of Mauch Chunk, where he has resided 
since his birth. He is what is familiarly known as a 
^'good mixer," and, in his youth, had a taste for poli- 
tics, which he outgrew as the years went by. 

It was alone his loss of interest in this direction that 
cut short a public career of unusual promise, Mr. Mul- 
hearn, of his own volition, devoting his energies and 
talents to his large and lucrative law practise rather 
than follow the beckoning finger of ambition, which 
earlier in his career pointed so unmistakably to polit- 
ical success. 

He is of Irish descent, his father, John Mulhearn, 
having been born in County Donegal, Ireland, in 1812. 
His mother's maiden name was Annie Sweeney, and 
she first saw the light of day in the Emerald Isle in the 
year 1808. 

The father emigrated to America in 1835, settling in 
Philadelphia. He and his future bride did not meet 
until they came to the United States. They were mar- 
ried in Philadelphia in 1843, subsequent to which event 
they removed to Pottsville, where Mr. Mulhearn be- 
came a coal miner. 

From Pottsville the family came to Mauch Chunk, 
Mr. Mulhearn spending the remainder of his active life 
in the capacity of a miner for the Hacklebernie Coal 
Company. His wife bore him six children: Hugh, 
Patrick F., Dennis C, Edward M., John J., and Han- 
nah V. Dennis and Hannah still live at Mauch Chunk. 

E. M. Mulhearn was born at Mauch Chunk June 15, 
1849. He attended the public schools, and at an early 
age picked slate in the breaker at Hacklebernie. He 
also boated for five seasons on the Lehigh Canal. En- 
tering Villa Nova College, he graduated in 1871. Im- 



530 ■ HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

mediately thereafter he began to read law in the office 
of Daniel Kalbfus, who was not only a successful law- 
yer, but a forceful and brilliant orator, and who was in 
demand as a political campaigner all over Pennsyl- 
vania and in some of the nearby states. 

Later Mr. Mulhearn continued his studies under 
John C. and Edward C. Dimmick, of Mauch Chunk, 
being admitted to the bar on June 20, 1873. His rise 
to prominence in his profession was rapid, his standing 
as a lawyer being such that when the Mollie Maguire 
trials came, a few years after his admission to the bar, 
he was called upon to play a leading part for the de- 
fense, among his clients having been Campbell, Doyle, 
Kelly, Kerregan, ' ' The Squealer, ' ' and ' ' Yellow Jack ' ' 
Donahue. 

Mr. Mulhearn early affiliated himself with the Ee- 
publican party, serving successively as secretary and 
chairman of the county central committee for nearly 
a decade. Chosen as district attorney of the county in 
1881, he was re-elected in 1884. In 1889 he was elected 
to the state legislature, declining a renomination two 
years thereafter. 

He has been the solicitor of the borough of Mauch 
Chunk for about ten years, while for six years he was 
the legal adviser of the county commissioners. 

On November 10, 1881, Mr. Mulhearn was married 
to Mary A., the daughter of John and Mary Behrndt, 
of Mauch Chunk. Their domestic life was one of hap- 
piness and of mutual helpfulness. Two children were 
born to them, John B. and Mary D., the wife of Walter 
A. Meekins, of Wilkes-Barre. 

Mrs. Mulhearn, who was a member of St. John's 
Lutheran church, died on February 28, 1891. 

Mr. Mulhearn is a member of the Catholic church of 
the Immaculate Conception. For seventeen years he 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 531 

has been the president of the St. Vincent De Paul So- 
ciety, of this church, which has done noble charitable 
work. 

He is a charter member of the Pennsylvania Bar As- 
sociation, and is the president of the Carbon County 
Law Library Association. 

Mr. Mulhearn is fond of out-door life, and he spends 
his summer vacations on the banks of Lake Harmony, 
in Kidder township, 

Mulhearn, John B., the only son of Hon. Edward M. 
and Mary A. (Behrnt) Mulhearn, was born at Mauch 
Chunk, Pa., on September 20, 1882. His early educa- 
tion was secured in the parochial schools of the bor- 
ough, which he attended until 1899. He prepared for 
college at the Swarthmore Preparatory School, finish- 
ing his general education at Villa Nova. 

Entering Dickinson Law School, he graduated in 
1909 with the degree of LL.B. 

Subsequently he lived the life of a ranchman in east- 
ern Montana for a time. Returning to Mauch Chunk, 
he established himself in the general insurance and 
real estate business, in which he has since been pros- 
perously engaged. 

On November 9, 1911, he was married to Rosa A., 
daughter of John and Celia 'Donnell, of East Mauch 
Chunk. 

Mr. Mulhearn is a member of the Delta Chi Fratern- 
ity, belongs to the Roman Catholic church, and is iden- 
tified with Damien Council No. 598, Knights of Colum- 
bus. He is one of the active Republicans of Mauch 
Chunk, and as a member of the fire department of the 
borough, holds membership in the Marion Hose Com- 
pany. 

Neast, Charles, senior member of the firm of Charles 
Neast and Company, contractors and builders, of 



532 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Mauch Chunk, and a representative man of affairs, 
was born in Mecklenberg, Germany, on October 2, 
1851. 

His father, John Neast, emigrated to this country 
with his family in 1854, settling at Mauch Chunk. 

Charles early left the public schools to pick slate in 
the breaker at Hacklebernie, later serving as a boat- 
man on the Lehigh Canal and assisting in the construc- 
tion of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad as a la- 
borer. Learning the trade of a carpenter, he soon be- 
came a contractor and builder, which business he has 
since very successfully followed. 

In addition to the numerous dwelling houses which 
he has erected, the following well-known Mauch Chunk 
buildings may be mentioned : The depot of the Central 
Railroad of New Jersey; the building of the Young 
Men's Christian Association; both of the public school 
houses of the borough, the Roman Catholic Church, 
and the parochial school building. He also erected the 
Meeds Memorial church, of Nesquehoning ; the Epis- 
copal church and vicarage, of Lehighton ; the Reform- 
ed church, of East Mauch Chunk, and various other 
prominent buildings. 

The tirm of Charles Neast and Company was organ- 
ized in 1902, Mr. Neast taking his sons, George and 
Frank and his son-in-law, Thomas Costenbader, into 
partnership with himself. In addition to its other in- 
terests, the firm operates a well equipped planing mill 
in East Mauch Chunk. 

Mr. Neast is the president of the Mauch Chunk Silk 
Mill Company, of which he was one of the organizers. 
This company operates mills at Mauch Chunk and at 
Nesquehoning. He is also president of the Progres- 
sive Building and Loan Association, of East Mauch 
Chunk, while being a director of the Mauch Chunk 
Trust Company. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 533 

He is active in religious circles and is a member of 
the United Evangelical church. Politically speaking, 
he is a Republican. 

Mr. Neast was married in 1874 to Anna, daughter of 
Charles Lobien, of Bloomingdale, Carbon county. 
Their surviving children are: George, Frank, and 
Mary, the wife of Thomas Costenbader. 

Neeb, Henry J., a farmer of Towamensing township, 
was born there on May 19, 1858. He is the son of Cas- 
per and Mary (Ruhe) Neeb, both natives of Germany. 
The father emigrated to America at the age of four- 
teen years, settling in New Jersey. Going back to the 
Fatherland, he returned to the United States, about 
1848, building his permanent home in Towamensing 
township, where he became a farmer. His death oc- 
curred in 1902 at the age of seventy-seven years. 

After leaving the common schools, Henry J. Neeb 
worked on his father's farm for a period, later spend- 
ing some time in the lumber woods of western Penn- 
sylvania. Entering the service of the Lehigh Valley 
Railroad Company, he was connected with the oper- 
ating department of the road for thirteen years. In 
1893 he purchased the farm on which he now lives, con- 
sisting of 141 acres. 

Mr. Neeb has served both as a school director and 
as supervisor of Towamensing township. He is a Re- 
publican. 

On August 2, 1884, he was married to Elmira, daugh- 
ter of Levi Behler of Franklin township. Their chil- 
dren are: Harry, Charles, Mary, Lillie, deceased; 
Luella, and Raymond. 

Nuss, Lewis C, a Weatherly business man, was born 
there on May 16, 1868. His father, Joseph Nuss, was a 
native of Columbia county, Pa. He was a plumber 
and tinsmith. Early in life he located at Summit Hill, 



534 i HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Carbon county, later removing to Weatherly, where he 
spent the remainder of his active years in the employ 
of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. His wife, before her 
marriage, was Matilda Walton. They became the 
parents of seven sons, all of whom survive, and a 
daughter, now deceased. The father died in 1904, at 
the age of seventy-nine years. 

Leaving the public schools in his seventeenth year, 
L. C. Nuss entered the hardware and plumbing estab- 
lishment of his brothers, W. A. and H. E. Nuss, as an 
apprentice. They conducted their business in the build- 
ing formerly occupied by the Co-operative Store, one 
of the old landmarks of Weatherly. After a time they 
sold out to J. F. Kressley, who, in 1889 was succeeded 
by L. C. Nuss, acting individually. Mr. Nuss erected 
his present substantial place of business in 1898. He 
is a dealer in electrical supplies, stoves, roofing and 
hardware, and his establishment is equipped to furnish 
steam and hot water plumbing and similar work. 

On March 4, 1895, Mr. Nuss was married to Gertrude 
Koch, a native of Schuylkill county. Carden, a son, 
and Doris, a daughter, are their children. 

Mr. Nuss is one of the trustees of the Presbyterian 
church of the borough, and he is identified with the 
Patriotic Order of Sons of America and the Free and 
Accepted Masons. He is a believer in the principles 
of Democracy. 

Packer, Asa, builder of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, 
founder of Lehigh University, and one of Pennsyl- 
vania's foremost men of affairs, was equally conspicu- 
ous for the dominating influence which he exerted in 
the development and growth of the Lehigh Valley, for 
his liberal public benefactions, and for those rare 
personal attributes which won for him the love and 
good will of his fellowmen. 





^1 










^ 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 535 

Born of humble but worthy parentage at Mystic, 
Connecticut, on December 29, 1805, his early educa- 
tion was such as was to be obtained in the district 
schools of that day and locality. 

While the training thus secured might be looked 
upon as a meagre preparation for the manifold duties 
and demands of the distinguished position to which he 
attained in life, the disadvantage under which he labor- 
ed was more than counterbalanced by his native abil- 
ities and his strong, virile character. 

As a youth of seventeen he bade farewell to the 
scenes of his childhood, and carrying all his personal 
possessions on his back, set out on foot for Brooklyn, 
Susquehanna county, Pa., the home of his cousin, Ed- 
ward Packer. Having accomplished his wearisome 
journey, the ambitious boy determined to learn the 
carpenter's trade under the direction of his cousin. 
Applying himself to his work with enthusiasm and 
characteristic thoroughness, he soon became a skilled 
mechanic. 

Having completed his apprenticeship, young Packer 
went to New York, where he followed his trade for a 
year. The city held no fascinations for him, however, 
and he returned to Susquehanna county, locating in 
Springville township. There he pursued his vocation, 
and on January 23, 1828, was married to Sarah M. 
Blakslee. The couple soon settled on a farm. But 
nature yielded her crops scantily, the markets were 
distant, and at the end of four years they found them- 
selves scarcely any better off than when they began. 

During the winter of 1833, learning that there was a 
demand for boatmen on the Lehigh Canal, Mr. Packer 
drove to Mauch Chunk in a primitive sled, and made 
arrangements to engage in this work on the opening 
of navigation in the spring, after which he returned 
home to close up his affairs. 



536 ' HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

As the time arrived for his departure for his new 
field of endeavor, he walked to Tunkhannock; board- 
ing a raft there he floated down the Susquehanna to 
Berwick, covering the remainder of the distance to 
Mauch Chunk on foot. He at once became the com- 
mander of a canal boat, and soon gained control of 
an additional vessel, which he placed in charge of his 
brother-in-law, James I. Blakslee. 

During the summer he brought his family to Mauch 
Chunk. So well did he prosper that at the expiration 
of two years he retired from active service as a boat- 
man, but retained an interest in the enterprise. 

Purchasing the large mercantile establishment of 
E. W. Kimball, which stood on the site now occupied 
by the Navigation Building at Mauch Chunk, he in- 
stalled Mr. Blakslee as manager, while he himself es- 
tablished a boat yard and engaged in the building of 
canal boats, in which work his training as a carpenter 
proved quite useful. He took large contracts for the 
construction of locks on the upper section of the Le- 
high Canal, extending from Mauch Chunk to White 
Haven. These he completed with handsome profits in 
1839. 

In association with his brother, Robert, he, during 
the ensuing year, began to build canal boats at Potts- 
ville. This partnership was dissolved at the end of 
three years. Turning his attention next to the mining 
and shipping of coal, Mr. Packer operated the mines 
at Nesquehoning, carrying the output to market in his 
own boats from Mauch Chunk. 

Success had uniformly crowned his efforts since 
coming to Mauch Chunk, and he had amassed a com- 
fortable fortune, when, in 1852, he began the greatest 
undertaking of his career, the building of the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad. With prophetic discernment he had 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 537 

long foreseen the immense possibilities of this enter- 
prise, to the consummation of which he devoted years 
of the most exhausting labor, being often beset by 
innumerable difficulties and discouragements. After 
the financial revolution of 1857 he was harassed almost 
beyond endurance by the perplexities which he en- 
countered in financing his operations. 

But he was resolute in purpose, and even in the dark- 
est hours of his financial troubles he predicted that the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad, when completed, and its re- 
sources under fair development, would be the most 
successful railroad enterprise in the state, and he 
lived to see the fulfilment of even his highest hopes. 
For fully a quarter of a century this road stood first 
among the railroads of Pennsylvania in point of credit, 
while enjoying the highest measure of prosperity. 

Notwithstanding the many exactions and responsi- 
bilities of his busy life, Mr. Packer found time to par- 
ticipate actively in politics. But political honors were 
thrust upon him rather than sought by him. In 1841 
he was elected to the legislature, serving for two suc- 
cessive terms. Upon the organization of Carbon coun- 
ty, in 1843, he was appointed by the governor to the 
office of associate judge, which he filled for five years. 

Being elected to congress in 1852, he was re-elected 
two years later. In the Democratic national conven- 
tion of 1868, he was honored with the unanimous vote 
of the Pennsylvania delegation for the nomination for 
the presidency. 

During the succeeding year, without seeking or de- 
siring it, he was given the Democratic nomination for 
governor, being defeated for this office by Governor 
Geary, who was then a candidate for re-election. The 
majority returned for Geary in the state was 4,596 
votes, and so persistent were the supporters of Mr. 



538 ! HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Packer in declaring that the election had been carried 
by fraudulent means that a contest was narrowly 
averted. 

Judge Packer, as he was familiarly known in Car- 
bon county, was a man of excellent presence, with a 
finely chiseled face that rarely expressed emotion, 
and he was very quiet and unassuming in conversation. 

Prosperity is the true touchstone of the heart, and it 
must be said of Asa Packer that he was not spoiled by 
the possession of great wealth. He and his devoted 
wife always retained the simple tastes of their early 
life. She continued to the end of her days to knit her 
stockings, to fashion many of her own garments, and it 
was with diflQculty that she could be persuaded to ride 
in her own carriage. They both loved the quiet of their 
home and were sternly severe to ostentatious display. 
He had no taste for society, and all formal social du- 
ties were extremly irksome to him. 

Generous and whole-souled, however, he was the 
author of countless jjersonal benefactions, always so 
modestly bestowed that the knowledge of them seldom 
reached the general public. As one of the wealthiest 
men of his time in Pennsylvania, he contributed to edu- 
cational, charitable and religious institutions with 
munificent liberality. His public spirit was shown at 
the breaking out of the Mexican War, when he mag- 
nanimously defrayed the cost of transporting the 
troops sent to the front from Carbon county. 

During the Civil War, when Pennsylvania was in- 
vaded, many of the men in the employ of the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad, of which he was then almost the sole 
owner, volunteered for the emergency, receiving full 
pay during the period of their absence. 

One of the favorite objects of his benevolence was 
St. Luke's Hospital, of South Bethlehem. In addi- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 539 

tion to the large sums which he gave to this institution 
during life, he left it a bequest of $300,000 upon his 
death. To St. Mark's church, of Mauch Chunk, of 
which he was for forty-four years a warden and ves- 
tryman, he left the sum of $30,000. 

Deprived as he had been of the advantages of a 
liberal education, he was desirous of affording the 
youth of the state opportunities such as had been de- 
nied to him, and he crowned his life in the establish- 
ment of Lehigh University, which has become a fore- 
most seat of scientific and technical education. 

In 1865 Judge Packer purchased fifty-six acres of 
land at South Bethlehem for the purpose he had in 
view, besides giving the sum of $500,000. Ten years 
later he added fifty-two acres to the University tract, 
at which time he also erected a fine library in memory 
of his daughter, Mrs. Lucy Packer Linderman. 

This proved to be his last personal undertaking in 
connection with the institution, his death taking place 
a few years afterwards. 

Under the provisions of his will, he left a perma- 
nent endowment of $1,500,000 for general maintenance, 
and $500,000 for library purposes. His total contribu- 
tions to the university amounted to about $3,000,000, 
and that institution will receive one-third of his estate 
when It is finally distributed. 

A beautiful edifice, adorning the spacious grounds 
of Lehigh University, is the Packer Memorial church, 
erected in 1886 by Mrs. Mary Packer Cummings, a 
daughter of Judge Packer. 

Mr. Packer was a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
while Packer Commandery, No. 23, Knights Templar, 
of Mauch Chunk, was named in honor of his son, Rob- 
ert Asa. 



540 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

His death occurred on May 17, 1879, in the seventy- 
fourth year of his age. His widow passed away three 
years later, and the remains of both repose in the 
Mauch Chunk cemetery. 

Mrs. Mary Packer Cummings, who was their sole 
surviving child, died in the autumn of 1912. During 
her life-time she contributed generously to various 
worthy causes, and she left many large bequests to 
Mauch Chunk and its institutions, besides lavishing 
her benefactions in numerous other directions. 

In recognition of her liberality and public spirit, the 
people of Mauch Chunk and of East Mauch Chunk have 
set aside the third Thursday of May of each year, to 
be observed as a holiday, and to be known as Mary 
Packer Cummings Day, 

Packer, Harry Eldred, the younger son of Asa and 
Sarah M. (Blakslee) Packer, was born on June 4, 1850, 
at Mauch Chunk. Educated at Lehigh University, 
which was founded and so liberally endowed by his fa- 
ther, he early became prominently indentified with the 
coal and transportation interests of the Lehigh Valley. 
In 1879, he was elected a director of the Lehigh Valley 
Eailroad, and prior to that served as superintendent 
of the New Jersey Division of that road. 

Elevated by successive steps, he was elected to the 
presidency of the company in 1883. Generous and pub- 
lic-spirited, he manifested great loyalty and attach- 
ment toward the place of his nativity, contributing 
liberally in various ways to the betterment and pros- 
perity of Mauch Chunk. 

He was an active and influential Democrat, and his 
popularity with all classes of citizens throughout the 
county led to his being chosen without opposition, in 
1881, to the office of associate judge. He succeeded his 
father as a vestryman of St. Mark's Parish. 




/7y. 





HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 541 

On August 29, 1872, he was married to Mary Au- 
gusta, daughter of Alexander Lockhart, a pioneer resi- 
dent of Mauch Chunk. 

Mr. Packer's untimely death, on February 1, 1884, 
in the thirty-fourth year of his age was the source of 
deep regret to all who knew him. His widow died at 
Pekin, China, during the spring of 1911, while making 
a tour of the world. 

Packer, Robert Asa, the elder of the two sons of 
Asa Packer, was born at Mauch Chunk on November 
19, 1842. He received a fair English education, and 
began life as a member of a corps of engineers, en- 
gaged in locating and constructing that portion of the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad extending from White Haven 
to Wilkes-Barre. 

Beginning his career as a railway executive in the 
capacity of superintendent of the Wyoming Division 
of this railroad, he spent practically the whole of his 
mature life in directing the affairs of various railway 
lines belonging to the Lehigh Valley system. 

For a time he was the superintendent of the Penn- 
sylvania and New York Canal and Railroad Company, 
of which he became the president in 1881. At the com- 
mencement of this connection he removed to Towanda, 
and later to Sayre, Pa., where he resided permanently. 

He was the president of the Geneva, Ithaca and 
Sayre Railroad, the Lehigh Valley Railway Company, 
running from the Pennsylvania state line to Buffalo, 
and of the Lehigh Valley Transportation Company, 
owning a line of steamers plying between Buffalo and 
Chicago. 

Mr. Packer was also a member of the board of di- 
rectors of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, chairman of its 
executive committee, a trustee of Lehigh University, 
and one of the trustees of the estate of his father. 



542 ' HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

In 1883 he was appointed managing director of the 
Southern Central Railroad. 

He was in politics a Democrat, and while he was re- 
peatedly urged to accept nominations for public office, 
he uniformly declined all honors of this nature, con- 
tenting himself with championing the cause of others 
who advocated the principles of his party. 

Possessed of a fine personality and many excellent 
traits of character, he had hosts of loyal friends. He 
took pleasure in doing all in his power to build up and 
beautify the town of Sayre, and he was no less identi- 
fied with the educational and religious improvement 
of the place of his adoption than with its material ad- 
vancement. 

His companion in life was Emily, the only daughter 
of Hon. Victor Piollet. 

Mr. Packer's death occurred at his winter home, 
near Jacksonville, Pla., on February 20, 1883. 

Prutzman, Morris G., a member of one of Carbon 
county's oldest families, is an architect, having his of- 
fice in the court house at Mauch Chunk, while living in 
East Mauch Chunk. 

His maternal great-great-grandfather was Freder- 
ick Boyer, who was taken captive by the Indians dur- 
ing the uprising of 1755, being carried to Canada, 
where he was held as a prisoner for five years. Upon 
regaining his freedom he returned to his home, where 
Millport now stands, and where his father had been 
slain by the savages. 

Abraham Prutzman, the grandfather of the subject 
of this notice, was of English descent, coming to Car- 
bon county from South Easton, and settling on a farm 
on the present site of Palmerton. 

Morris G. Prutzman, son of Charles and Christiana 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 543 

(Boyer) Prutzman, was born on this farm, March 9, 
1865. His father was a contractor and builder. 

Morris was educated in the public schools and under 
a private tutor, being apprenticed to a decorative 
painter at Bethlehem when he became fifteen years of 
age. Following this art for a time, he later took up 
architecture, under a private instructor. Locating in 
East Mauch Chunk in 1897, he opened an office at that 
place, later establishing himself in Mauch Chunk. He 
is the only professional architect in the county, and has 
made a special study of school construction. He de- 
signed the first one-room school building having an 
indirect heating and ventilating system, without spe- 
cial apparatus, erected in this portion of the state. 

The public school buildings at Palmerton and Bow- 
manstown, the Greek Catholic church at Nesquehoning, 
and No. 2 Fire House at Lehighton are examples of 
his work, while he has designed many other public and 
private buildings throughout this section. 

He is the architect of the parochial school building 
of St. Joseph's Catholic church, of East Mauch Chunk, 
which is soon to be erected. 

Mr. Prutzman was married on December 12, 1899, to 
Jennie L., daughter of Conrad Ebert, of Lehigh county. 
She is a graduate of the Allentown high school, and 
was engaged as a teacher prior to her marriage. Allen 
Ebert is their only child. 

Mr. Prutzman is a communicant of the Lutheran 
church, while politically speaking, he is an independent 
Democrat. 

Pryor, Captain John W., one of Carbon county's 
most gallant soldiers, a veteran of the Mexican War 
and of the War of Secession, was born at Pittsburgh, 
Pa., on January 6, 1826. While still quite young, he 
located at Mauch Chunk, becoming a member of the 



544 HISTORY OF CAKBON COUNTY. 

Stockton Artillerists, with which organization he went 
to the front as a sergeant upon the breaking out of 
hostilities with our sister republic of the south. 

His command served with distinction under General 
Scott in the campaign which culminated in the fall of 
Mexico and the close of the war. 

A Mexican battle flag which he took during this cam- 
paign is still among the treasured possessions of his 
family. 

During the Civil War he was a captain in the famous 
Eighty-first Pennsylvania Regiment, participating in 
every important battle in which the Army of the Poto- 
mac was engaged until the turning back of Lee's army 
from its second invasion of the North. He was repeat- 
edly wounded in battle and was frequently compli- 
mented in general reports for gallantry. At the battle 
of Gettysburg he was severely wounded, and after a 
long stay in the hospital he was honorably discharged 
for disability. 

Captain Pryor was a moulder by trade. Soon after 
the close of the war he located in Weatherly, where he 
spent the remainder of his active life in the service of 
the Lehigh Valley Railroad. 

On October 2, 1849, he was married to Eliza Ginter, 
a grandchild of Philip Ginter, the discoverer of coal at 
Summit Hill. The following children were born to 
them: Newton, deceased; Maria (White), of Wilkes- 
Barre; Sarah, deceased; Alexander, of Scranton; 
Grant E., of Horton, Kansas. 

The Weatherly camp of the Sons of Veterans was 
named in honor of Captain Pryor. His death occurred 
on October 20, 1901, and his remains repose in Union 
Cemetery at Weatherly. 

Pursell, David E., burgess of Mauch Chunk, and 
senior member of the firm of Pursell and Dods, general 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 545 

insurance and real estate agents of that place, is the 
son of Daniel M. and Rebecca W. (Eilenburger) Pur- 
sell. 

His paternal ancestors were of Scotch-Irish extrac- 
tion, and were among the early settlers of Bucks coun- 
ty, Pennsylvania. The father was a general contrac- 
tor, being engaged for a time as a boat builder on the 
Lehigh Canal. 

David was born at Upper Black Eddy, Bucks coimty, 
Pa., on August 22, 1869. At the age of thirteen he 
began life as a farm laborer, attending school during 
the winter months. Two years later he enrolled for 
a single term at the Kutztown State Normal School. 
Subsequently he fitted himself as a stenographer at 
Chaffee's Phonographic Institute, of Oswego, New 
York. 

During the winter of 1887 he came to Mauch Chunk, 
where he secured employment as an amanuensis in the 
office of the division superintendent of the Central 
Railroad of New Jersey. Later he held the chief clerk- 
ship of this office. 

In 1899 Mr. Pursell established himself in the in- 
surance business, forming a partnership with William 
Dods four years later. As a result of their united ef- 
forts, theirs has become the leading agency of its kind 
in this portion of the state. They have also opened a 
branch office in Scranton, while holding and dealing in 
real estate. 

In 1909 Mr. Pursell was unanimously chosen to the 
office of burgess of Mauch Chunk, which position he 
still holds. He has also served as president of the 
Business Men's Association of the borough. 

In 1891 he was married to Carrie H., daughter of 
Samuel H. Heist, of Mauch Chunk. Their three chil- 
dren are: Stanley H., a student at the University of 
Pennsylvania ; Edwin D., and Mildred L. Pursell. 



546 HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Quinn, A. John, one of Lansford's best known busi- 
ness men, being one of the pioneer residents of that 
borough, is the son of James and Catherine (Heather- 
man) Quinn, and was born at Buck Mountain, Carbon 
county. May 10, 1848. 

His parents were natives of Limmerick, Ireland, 
where they were married. They came to the United 
States in 1845, and made their home at Buck Moun- 
tain, where Mr. Quinn became a miner. Of their six 
children, Elizabeth and John A. alone survive. 

John A. Quinn acquired his early training in the 
public schools of Buck Mountain and those of Hazle- 
ton; in 1872 he graduated at Eastman Business Col- 
lege, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. He taught school in the vil- 
lage of his birth and at Ashton (now Lansford) for 
several terms. Learning the drug business under Dr. 
J. B. Longshore, who was then one of the most prom- 
inent physicians of the Hazleton region, and at Phila- 
delphia, Mr. Quinn opened a drug store in Lansford. 
Disposing of this business he secured a contract from 
the Central Railroad of New Jersey to build a section 
of the line of that road between Eckley and Drifton, 
Luzerne county. 

Upon the completion of this work he went to Mon- 
tana, in 1878, locating at Philipsburg, near Butte. He 
carried the civil law into this border town, becoming 
its first justice of the peace and teaching school there. 

Returning to Pennsylvania after an interval of three 
years, Mr. Quinn formed a partnership with L. P. Jen- 
kins, and re-entered the drug business ; at the expira- 
tion of a year he purchased the interest of Mr. Jenkins, 
and has since conducted the store as sole owner. He 
has also conducted an undertaking establishment for 
many years, and has been interested in various other 
business enterprises. He has been a director of the 



HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 547 

First National Bank, of Lansford, since its organiza- 
tion, while he is the president of the Carbon Telephone 
Company, and vice president of the Panther Creek 
Valley Electric Light, Heat and Power Company. 

Mr. Quinn bore a conspicuous and heroic part in the 
small-pox epidemic which for a time threatened to wipe 
out the entire population of Lansford in 1874. The 
large majority of those who were seized with the dread 
disease died, and new cases were of almost daily occur- 
rence. 

The people of the village were panic-stricken, and 
many fled from their homes. Under the circumstances 
it was naturally difficult to secure the services of any- 
one who was willing to jeopardize his own safety by 
ministering to the sick, and, excepting the physicians 
who were on the scene, cheerfully incurring all hazards 
in the discharge of their professional duty, Mr. Quinn 
alone volunteered, doing all in his power to alleviate 
the miseries of those who suffered from the visitation. 

On his return from Montana, in 1881, Mr. Quinn was 
united in marriage to Marcella F. Kennedy, daughter 
of Matthew and Ellen Kennedy, of Summit Hill, The 
names of their surviving children are as follows : Vin- 
cent De Paul, Ellen L., wife of John B. McGurl, a 
Minersville attorney; Catherine B., Sidney A., John J., 
William T., and Matthew K. Quinn. Vincent has 
charge of his father's drug store, while Sidney is a 
student at Jefferson Medical College ; John is a grad- 
uate of the Medico-Chirurgical College, of Philadel- 
phia ; Matthew is a student in the Lansford high school. 

Mr. Quinn is an active member of St. Ann's Roman 
Catholic church, while being connected with the Auxil- 
iary Association of Eli T. Connor Post, G. A. R., of 
Summit Hill. 



548 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Kauch, E. H., politician, soldier and editor, was 
born at Warwick, Lancaster county, on July 19, 1820, 
the fourth son of Christian H. and Mary M. Eauch. 

His grandfather, Johann Heinrich Eauch, came to 
America from Kohn, on the Ehine, Germany, in 1769. 
He was by trade a whitesmith, and located at Lititz, 
Pa., where he engaged in the manufacture of edge 
tools, gim locks and coffee mills. In 1776 he was im- 
pressed with the fact that an auger that would bore a 
hole and at the same time eject the chips would be an 
improvement on the old style ''pot" auger then in 
use. With this idea in mind, he invented the principle 
and bit of the auger of to-day. 

Edward H. Eauch was educated at Lititz, and at 
the age of fourteen went to work on a farm for two 
dollars a month. Soon thereafter he was apprenticed 
to a cabinet-maker, named Jacob Bear, at Lancaster, 
being bound to serve until attaining his majority. He 
became a good workman, while Bear developed into a 
severe task-master. 

This led the young apprentice to run away two years 
before the expiration of the time he was expected to 
serve. He went to Philadelphia, where he found em- 
ployment. 

His father being responsible for his service, com- 
promised with Bear for one hundred and twenty-five 
dollars, which sum young Edward refunded in instal- 
ments. 

In 1840 he went to Mullica Hill, N. J., where he 
worked as a carpenter. He began his political career 
and made his maiden speech during the presidential 
campaign of that year. He next returned to Warwick 
to assist in the conduct of the affairs of his father, 
while his brother Eudolph secured for him an appoint- 
ment to a clerkship in the office of the prothonotary of 
Lancaster county. 




Capt. E. II. Kauch. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 549 

During the year 1846 he entered into partnership 
with John Willard as a house painter, which continued 
for about a year. 

It was at this period, with Thaddeus Stephens and 
others, that he became connected with what was known 
as the Underground Railway. 

George Hughes, a slave-catching detective had head- 
quarters at Lancaster, and being illiterate, needed 
some one to do his writing. Not knowing Mr. Ranch's 
sentiments, he asked him to become his secretary, 
which was agreed to. This gave the underground rail- 
roaders certain knowledge of the plans and movements 
of the slave-catchers, and it is noteworthy that during 
the time this arrangement remained in force, Hughes 
was unsuccessful in catching a single runaway slave. 

In 1847 Mr. Ranch was a collector of toll on the 
Philadelphia and Lancaster turnpike, which afforded 
him an opportunity to enter more actively into politi- 
cal affairs. By shrewd manipulation of a primary 
election he secured the nomination of Thaddeus 
Stephens for congress, saving the great Commoner 
from defeat at a most critical stage in his career. 

Shortly afterwards he became deputy register of 
Lancaster county. 

Under the leadership of Thaddeus Stephens, a com- 
pany was formed in 1848 to publish a daily and weekly 
newspaper as the organ of the anti-slavery element of 
the Whig party. Mr. Ranch and Edward McPherson 
were placed in charge of the paper, the Independent 
Whig and Inland Daily , of Lancaster. This was the 
beginning of Mr. Ranch's long and varied career as a 
journalist. After about six years he disposed of his 
interest in this establishment, removing to Bethlehem, 
where he founded the Lehigh Valley Times, which be- 
came a Republican organ in a Democratic stronghold. 



550 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

Coming to Mauch Chunk in the spring of 1857, he 
purchased the Mauch Chunk Gazette, resulting in the 
political revolution of Carbon county. He was ap- 
pointed to the position of transcribing clerk in the 
House of Representatives at Harrisburg in 1859, and 
was chief clerk of the House in 1860-61. In 1860 he 
was a delegate to the convention which nominated 
Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. 

During 1861, although still holding his position at 
Harrisburg, he recruited Company H of the Eleventh 
Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and was 
appointed captain. On returning to Harrisburg he 
was astonished to learn that he had been nominated 
for re-election. After much hesitation he decided to 
accept, on condition that he be granted leave of absence 
during the session, whilst his regiment was in winter 
quarters at Annapolis. 

During his service as a soldier. Captain Ranch par- 
ticipated with his company in the engagements of 
Cedar Mountain, Thoroughfare Gap, Second Bull Run, 
Fredericksburg, and in the fighting on the Rappahan- 
nock. At the battle of Second Bull Run he was wound- 
ed in the thigh. Soon after the battle of Fredericks- 
burg he became afflicted with rheumatism, and in April, 
1863, was discharged on that account. During the re- 
mainder of his life he was never entirely free from 
this complaint. 

At the close of the war he was offered a mayorship in 
the regular army, but rejected it, later becoming pro- 
vost marshal for Carbon and Luzerne counties, and 
participating in many important arrests of Buckshots 
or Mollie Maguires, who were then terrorizing the 
mining region. 

Finding his printing establishment ruined and neg- 
lected upon his return from the army, he did not at- 



HISTORY OF CARBON CX)UNTY. 551 

tempt to rehabilitate it, but went to Reading, where 
he started the Berks County Zeitung. After a time he 
concluded that he was unfitted to conduct a real Ger- 
man newspaper, abandoning the venture to become the 
editor of the Reading Daily Eagle. 

A venture which proved a complete success was the 
publication of a campaign paper called The Father 
Abraham. This he conducted in association with 
Thomas Cochran at Lancaster. Its circulation reached 
twenty thousand copies, which was at that time consid- 
ered a very large list. 

After the campaign of 1868 he became the sole owner 
of the establishment, conducting the paper under vari- 
ous names through several campaigns. 

In 1872 he joined the Liberal Republican movement 
for Greely, serving as one of the secretaries of the 
state committee under the chairmanship of A. K. Mc- 
Clure. Four years later he supported Tilden, and pub- 
lished a campaign paper under the name of Uncle 
Samuel. 

To meet a local political emergency, he was induced 
to return to Mauch Chunk, in 1877, to take charge of 
a newspaper, known as the Carbon County Democrat, 
which successfully advocated the candidacy of Robert 
Klotz for congress. 

Having served its purpose, this paper was after a 
time merged with the Mauch Chunk Democrat, then 
owned by H. E. Packer, Mr. Ranch being retained as 
editor. Upon the death of the former, Mr. Ranch and 
his son Lawrence purchased the property. In 1892 
they started the Daily News, later taking in R. C. 
Ranch as a partner. 

Soon after the close of the war Mr. Ranch began 
the publication of what became famous as the '^Pit 
Schwefflebrenner" letters, written in Pennsylvania 



552 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

Dutch, and regularly appearing in his newspapers 
until the time of his death. They teemed with homely 
wisdom and subtle humor, and with many of his read- 
ers they constituted the most popular feature of his 
paper. 

He was the author of a handbook on Pennsylvania 
Dutch, a translation of Rip Van Winkle, and a number 
of other publications in that dialect. 

He was probably the first, and certainly the most 
consistent, advocate of building a railroad to the Flag 
Staff, now a popular pleasure resort, towering on the 
mountain above Mauch Chunk, and he lived to par- 
ticipate in driving the golden spike, signalizing the 
completion of that project. 

Mr. Ranch's most remarkable specialty was that of 
a handwriting expert. He was first called in this con- 
nection before a legal tribunal at Lebanon, about 1850.. 
His success in this instance established his reputation, 
and he subsequently served in hundreds of similar 
cases in various parts of the Union. 

Mr. Ranch was married in 1851 to Mrs. Theresa Cle- 
well, with whom he lived happily for nearly half a cen- 
tury. William H., Edward C, Lawrence L., and Rich- 
ard C. Ranch are their surviving children. 

Captain Ranch enjoyed the acquaintance of most of 
the men prominent in public life in state and nation 
during two generations, while as an editor his name 
was familiar from one end of Pennsylvania to the 
other. His death occurred at Mauch Chunk on Sep- 
tember 8, 1902, in his eighty-third year. 

Reese, Thomas R., an Audenried coal operator, and 
engaged in a number of other enterprises, was born 
near Merthyr Tidvil, Wales, April 30, 1861. 

His father, Evan Reese, came to America with his 
family at the opening of the Civil War, settling at Ash- 



HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 553 

land, Schuylkill comity. He came to Audenried in 
1864 and became a mine foreman under George H. 
Meyers & Company, serving in that capacity for nearly 
twenty years. Later he conducted Weaver's Hotel, 
near Conyngham, Luzerne county. He was married to 
Mary Price, a native of Wales, and they had fifteen 
children. Mr. Reese died March 31, 1895, aged sixty 
years. 

Thomas R. Reese began life as a slate picker on the 
breaker of the firm by whom his father was employed, 
at the tender age of nine. By successive promotions 
he finally became mine foreman and later a contract 
miner. He remained with this company for twenty- 
four years. 

In 1893 Mr. Reese engaged in the livery business in 
partnership with Harry Taylor at Audenried. After 
four years he purchased the interest of Mr. Taylor, 
and has since conducted the business as sole owner. 

In 1905 Mr. Reese purchased Pardee's old grist mill, 
for many years one of the landmarks of Hazleton, con- 
ducting a livery stable in the building. He disposed 
of this property in 1910. 

Mr. Reese acquired the coal operation known as the 
Dusky Diamond Colliery, located at Beaver Brook^ Lu- 
zerne county, from Thomas Morgan in 1901, and is 
still successfully engaged in the mining and shipping 
of coal at that place. He also has an interest in the 
Bangor Silk Mills, of Bangor, Northampton county. 

Mr. Reese was united in wedlock to Miss Mary 
Smith, of Hazleton, on November 8, 1879. Their chil- 
dren are : Evan, Otto, Howard, Charles, William and 
May Reese. 

The father of this family is a stalwart Republican 
and is now serving his third term as a supervisor of 



554 ' HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Banks township, in which Audenried is situated. He is 
recognized as a man of native force and ability. 

Eehrig, Rev. W. M., pastor of St. John's Evangel- 
ical Lutheran church, of Mauch Chunk, and a man of 
broad public spirit and activity, is descended from 
Revolutionary stock, his great-grandfather, Conrad' 
Rehrig, having fought as a soldier under Washington. 
At the close of the war, he settled in what is now East 
Penn township. Carbon county, where some of his de- 
scendants are still engaged in agricultural pursuits. 

The grandfather of the subject of this memoir was 
named John. His farm in East Penn township, con- 
sisted of four tracts, one of which originally belonged 
to William Thomas, whose estate was confiscated on 
the charge of treason during the war of Independence. 
Subsequently it was deeded to George Crossley by 
John Adams, then vice-president of the United States. 
After a number of transfers, it was in 1813 purchased 
by Mr. Rehrig, and he erected a log house and barn 
thereon. 

It was in this house that Wilson Meyer Rehrig, son 
of Gideon and Susan (Meyer) Rehrig, was born on 
November 16, 1853. He prepared for college at the 
Lehighton Academy and in the academic department of 
Muhlenberg College, from which institution he was 
graduated in 1879. Entering the Lutheran Theological 
Seminary at Philadelphia, he completed his course in 
1882, being ordained as a minister of the Lutheran 
church in June of the same year. 

Immediately after his ordination he located at 
Girardville, Pa., where he organized a mission. Upon 
his resignation, in 1887, he had gathered a self-sustain- 
ing congregation of more than three hundred members. 

Removing to Greenville, Mercer county. Pa., he as- 
sumed charge of a country parish, later becoming pas- 




WM.h 




HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 555 

tor of the church of Thiel College, where he remained 
until 1898. During his pastorate here he was acting 
German professor of the college, besides being an in- 
structor in various other subjects. After leaving 
Greenville, Rev. Rehrig served the congregation of 
St. John's church, at Sayre, Pa., for two years, assum- 
ing the duties of his present charge on June 1, 1900. 
He has given his best efforts and, perhaps, the best 
years of his life to this congregation. 

Rev. Rehrig served as president of the Wilkes-Barre 
Conference of the Lutheran church for a number of 
years, while he has been a member of the board of 
trustees of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at 
Philadelphia for about eight years. He is also presi- 
dent of the Slav Mission Board of the United States, 
which organization is maintained by the General Coun- 
cil of the Lutheran Church. 

During the month of June, 1910, he attended the 
World's Missionary Conference, held at Edinburgh, 
Scotland, as the delegate of the churches of Carbon 
county, being accompanied by his wife, and making a 
general tour of Europe. 

For post graduate work in philosophy, Thiel College 
conferred the degree of Ph.D. upon Rev. Rehrig, while 
the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Chicago hon- 
ored him with the degree of B.D. 

He was married to Margaret M., daughter of Isaac 
M. English, of Harrisburg, February 26, 1884. Their 
two sons, John and Ralph, both died at the age of sev- 
enteen years. 

Riegel, Johan A., a farmer and justice of the peace 
of Mahoning township, was there born, December 30, 
1851. He traces his ancestry to Jacob Riegel, who 
emigrated from Germany to this country in 1747, he 



556 \ HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 

being one of four brothers who came to the United 
States together. 

Jacob, the great-grandfather of Johan A. Riegel, 
settled in Bucks county, Pa. His son, Jacob Riegel, 
settled in Dauphin county, following the occupation of 
a farmer. One of his sons was Amos Riegel, father of 
the subject of this sketch, who was born in Dauphin 
county, July 15, 1815, and came to Carbon county in 
1849. He owned much of the land on which James- 
town, a suburb of Lehighton, is now located. He was 
a successful farmer and cattle dealer. In 1858 he was 
elected by popular ballot to the office of sheriff of Car- 
bon county. In 1882, as a member of the Republican 
party, he was chosen as a county commissioner. 

He was a veteran of the Rebellion, having gone to 
the front as second lieutenant of Company F, Thirty- 
fourth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, in response 
to the emergency call. He was honorably discharged 
at the expiration of his term of service. 

Mr. Riegel was twice married, his first wife being 
Mary Hoffman, who died September 20, 1843, a short 
time subsequent to her marriage. In 1850 he was unit- 
ed in wedlock to Mrs. Abigal Hunsinger, of Mahoning 
township. Their children were as follows : Johan A., 
Jerome H., Tilghman and Sallie J. Riegel. The first 
and last named only survive, Sallie being unmarried 
and living in Lehighton. 

Johan A. Riegel attended the public schools of Ma- 
honing township and of Mauch Chunk. Later he was 
a student at Millersville State Normal School, and in 
1871 entered Palatinate College, Meyerstown, Pa. 
After completing his education he worked on his fa- 
ther's farm for a time, and in 1873 went west, spending 
nearly a quarter of a century in agricultural pursuits 
in the states of the middle west and of the Rocky moun- 
tain region. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 557 

In the fall of 1896 he returned to Pennsylvania, lo- 
cating on the old homestead, where he has since re- 
mained. He was elected as a justice of the peace of 
Mahoning township in 1908. He is known as a man of 
independent thought and action, and is active in patri- 
otic society circles, being a member of the Patriotic 
Order Sons of America, the Sons of Veterans, the 
Order of Independent Americans and of the Junior 
Mechanics. 

Mr. Riegel is an adherent of the Republican party 
and a member of the Reformed church. In 1877 he was 
married to Caroline Balliet, daughter of Paul Balliet 
and his wife Priscilla, of Garrett City, Indiana. Sarah 
H., whose birth occurred in 1885, is their only child. 
She remains at home. 

Romig, Abraham J., superintendent of the plant of 
the Tide Water Pipe Company at Hudsondale, and 
senior member of the firm of A. J. Romig and Son, 
conducting an establishment for the repair and mainte- 
nance of automobiles and other vehicles, besides doing 
general blacksmithing, was born in Packer township 
on November 23, 1851. He is one of the ten children 
of Thomas and Caroline (Snyder) Romig, both life- 
long residents of Packer township. 

Mr. Romig learned the trade of a blacksmith and 
wheelwright, which he followed for years. For the 
term of eight years he was employed at the powder 
mills of the Lafflin and Rand Company, situated in the 
western portion of Quakake Valley. He was also for 
a time employed by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Com- 
pany, at Weatherly, and by the Jeanesville Iron Works 
Company at Jeanesville. 

About twenty-six years ago he entered the employ 
of the Tide Water Pipe Company, engaged in the 
transmission of petroleum between the oil fields and 



558 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

tide water, and maintaining a large pumping station at 
Hudsondale. After successive promotions, he became 
the local superintendent of this company, in which ca- 
pacity he has served for about seven years. 

In association with his son, Charles, he, in 1911, es- 
tablished the shops of which he is the head. Both are 
mechanical geniuses, and they have built up a good 
trade. 

On January 19, 1872, Mr. Romig was married to 
Catharine, a daughter of Charles Keiper, of Hudson- 
dale. They have seven children, as follows: Albert, 
Priscilla, the wife of Jonas Wetzel ; Charles, Valentine, 
Cora, wife of Lewis Krop; Susan and Rosa. 

Mr. Romig is a staunch Democrat, and is a member 
of the Reformed church. 

Rosenstock, John E., engaged in the general insur- 
ance and real estate business at Weatherly, is the son 
of Casper and Elizabeth (Derr) Rosenstock. 

The father emigrated to this country from Germany 
with his widowed mother and two sisters when but 
thirteen years of age, locating at Stockton, Luzerne 
county, and becoming the bread-winner of the family. 

In 1854 he entered the service of the Beaver Meadow 
Railroad as a brakeman. When that road was merged 
with the Lehigh Valley, he continued in the employ of 
the new company, soon becoming a locomotive engineer 
and spending the remainder of his active life with this 
corporation. He retired in 1910, after a continuous 
service of about fifty-six years. 

John E. Rosenstock is one of a family of ten chil- 
dren, and was born at Weatherly on November 4, 1860. 
Educated in the common schools, he mastered the trade 
of a molder, which he followed in the foundry of the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad at Weatherly for many years. 
In 1892 he took charge of a department in a pipe foun- 



HISTOEY OF CAKBON COUNTY. 559 

dry at Utica, N. Y., where he remained for a short time. 
He was one of the promoters of the National Spool and 
Bobbin Works, established at Weatherly in 1904, and 
was the superintendent of the plant while it continued 
in operation. Later he was with the Weatherly Foun- 
dry and Machine Company. He established himself 
in his present business in 1911. 

Mr. Rosenstock has long taken an active part in the 
municipal affairs of his native town. He has held the 
offices of school director and assessor, while serving as 
the borough secretary since 1898. He is also a mem- 
ber of the fire department, and is identified with the 
board of trade and the improvement society. For a 
number of years he was a member of the board of 
auditors of the Middle Coal Field Poor District. 

Affiliating with the Republican party, he has been 
associated with its county committee. 

In 1884 Mr. Rosenstock was married to Nellie, 
daughter of J. A. Beers, of Weatherly. They became 
the parents of two daughters, Jennie, the wife of H. 
A. Young, and Mabel, who married Elmer Young. Mrs. 
Rosenstock died early in 1913. 

Boss, Ira G., cashier of the Mauch Chunk National 
Bank, and for many years prominently identified with 
the financial interests of that place, is descended from 
Colonial ancestors. 

His paternal forefathers were of Scottish lineage, 
while his father, James S. Ross, was born in Lehigh 
county, coming to Mauch Chunk in 1864. Entering 
the service of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- 
pany in a clerical capacity, he, after a time became the 
general boating agent of that corporation. 

He was married to Flora Osmun, of Allentown, 
whose father was of English extraction, while her 



560 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

mother was descended from Pemisylvania German 
stock. 

Ira G. Ross was born at Bethlehem, Pa., February 
23, 1861. He was for a time a student at St. Mark's 
Academy, at Mauch Chunk, and later, entering the 
high school of that borough, he was graduated with 
honors in 1879. 

Beginning life as a clerk for the Lehigh Coal and 
Navigation Company, he was so engaged for about a 
year ; and, in 1880, he entered the First National Bank 
of Mauch Chunk as a bookkeeper. He successively 
filled the various positions in the bank, and was finally 
appointed assistant cashier. 

After the consolidation of the First National and 
the Linderman National Banks, in 1903, under the 
name of the Mauch Chunk National Bank, he was ap- 
pointed assistant cashier of the consolidation, holding 
that title until 1912, when he became cashier. 

Mr. Ross was married to Mary, the youngest daugh- 
ter of Leonard Yeager, one of Mauch Chunk's oldest 
and most esteemed residents, on October 28, 1884. 
Their children are Helen, Katherine, and Ira G. Ross, 
Jr. The former is a graduate of the Mauch Chunk 
high school. 

Mr. Ross is prominent in Masonic circles, being a 
past officer in all the bodies of that order in Mauch 
Chunk, and belonging to Irem Temple, Mystic Shrine, 
of Wilkes-Barre. He has been the representative of 
Carbon Lodge to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania for 
a number of years. 

He is a member and vestryman of St. Mark's Epis- 
copal church, of Mauch Chunk, and is treasurer of the 
parish. He was borough treasurer for six or seven 
years, and was a member of the board of education for 
a number of terms, having successively been secretary, 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 56X 

treasurer, and president of that body. In addition to 
his other duties, he is secretary and treasurer of the 
Mauch Chunk Heat, Power and Electric Light Com- 
pany, and is a member of the board of directors of that 
company. 

Schaefer, Joseph, Carbon county's best known hotel 
man, now living at East Mauch Chunk, was born at 
Easton, Pa., April 5, 1861, the youngest son of Bern- 
hard and Theresa (Pfeffer) Schaefer. 

His parents were natives of Wurtemberg, Germany, 
whence they emigrated to the United States about 
1850, their marriage having been celebrated in the 
fatherland. 

Joseph acquired his early training in the German 
parochial schools of South Easton, subsequently pur- 
suing a general business course in the city of his birth. 
He was first employed in a general store at Easton, 
beginning at the age of twelve years. 

His connection with the hotel business of Carbon 
county dates back to 1879, when he entered the service 
of P. H. Schweibinz, owner of the European Hotel, 
since known as the Central, at Mauch Chunk. 

In association with E. I. J. Paetzel, a former pro- 
thonotary of the county, he, in 1894, secured a lease of 
the Armbruster House, conducting it for five years. 
At the expiration of that time, Mr. Schaefer became 
the landlord of the Central Hotel, continuing as such 
until the fall of 1911, when he retired, after an unin- 
terrupted and prosperous career of thirty-three years 
on the same square. 

His hospitable nature and the homelike atmosphere 
which pervaded his hostelry were the prime factors in 
his success. 

On November 29, 1893, he was married to Annie M., 
daughter of Anthony Armbruster, of East Mauch 



562 ! HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Chunk. Tliey have two sons, Bernhard and Joseph. A 
daughter, Marie, died at the age of ten years. 

Mr. Schaefer is identified with the Benevolent and 
Protective Order of Elks, the Eagles, and a number of 
German societies. His political allegiance is given to 
the Democracy. 

Schaeff er, Samuel, a Weatherly contractor and build- 
er, was born in the Mahoning Valley, Schuylkill county, 
Pa., on March 2, 1861. He is the son of Samuel and 
Juda Troxel Schaeffer, both natives of Lehigh county. 
Educated in the public schools and at the Normal In- 
stitute, situated in his native valley, he learned the 
carpenter trade. 

Coming to Weatherly at the age of twenty years, he 
entered the car shops of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, 
where he remained for seven years. Subsequently he 
was engaged in general work in line with his calling, 
finally becoming a contractor and builder. In order 
to better qualify himself for the duties and demands 
of this wider field, he mastered a course in architecture 
during his spare time at home. 

He has erected many modern dwelling houses and 
buildings of a public nature in various parts of Carbon 
county, usually employing quite a force of men. 

Mr. Schaeffer has served as a school director of 
Weatherly, and was for a time a foreman in the volun- 
teer fire department of the town, being also a member 
of its board of trade. 

In 1883 he was married to Ellen, daughter of Charles 
Shafer, of Monroe county. Five daughters and six 
sons have been born of this marriage. 

Scott, E. E., a lawyer of Summit Hill, is one of the 
leading home builders of Carbon county, having been 
prominently connected with the organization of three 
very successful building and loan associations in the 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 563 

Panther Creek Valley section — one at Coal Dale, an- 
other at Lansford and the other at Summit Hill. The 
last named is the Homestead Building and Loan Asso- 
ciation, which furnishes the funds for the building of 
thirty homes a year on an average. It has assets of 
$380,000, and undivided profits in the sum of $80,000. 
It is over seventeen years old and Mr. Scott has been 
the secretary for over thirteen years. 

Joseph, the father of E. E. Scott, was born in Ire- 
land, and emigrating to America, located at Mauch 
Chunk, where, in the early fifties, he married Fanny 
Crummer, also a native of the Emerald Isle. For 
thirty years he served in various capacities for the 
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. 

Their children were: Joseph, who is a dentist at 
Avoca, Pa. ; Ellsworth E., William C, who is a dentist 
at Lansford; Leighton C, an attorney of the same 
place, and Mary E. Scott, a former successful teacher 
of Lansford, now a resident of the same place. 

Ellsworth E. Scott was born at Upper Mauch Chunk, 
December 23, 1861. At the age of nine years he be- 
came a wage earner as a slate picker on the boats of 
the Lehigh Canal at Mauch Chunk. The family moved 
to Coal Dale where he followed the same occupation. 
At fourteen he went inside as a door and sheet tender, 
and was finally promoted to bell boy at the head of the 
slope on the night shift. This permitted him to attend 
the public schools for several hours each day. He 
filled various positions about the mines until he became 
twenty-one years of age when he went to Millersville 
Normal School for a short time. After one year's ex- 
perience as a teacher at Penn Haven Junction school, 
he returned to the mines as a fireman because of better 
pay. Three years later he again took up teaching, 
having been elected to the Jamestown Grammar School 



564 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. " 

at Summit Hill, which he taught for eleven years. He 
served four years as principal of the Summit Hill 
schools, resigning this position to study law in the of- 
fices of Messrs. Bertolette and Barber, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar January 13, 1902. 

Mr. Scott has been the solicitor for the borough and 
school district for several years. He is a vestryman 
of St. Philip's Protestant Episcopal church at Summit 
Hill and belongs to the Tamaqua Masonic Lodge. He 
is also a member of the Patriotic Order Sons of Amer- 
ica. 

He was married to Mary L., daughter of Rev. Henry 
Margetts, of Cambria Center, N. Y., August 5, 1886. 
Three children have been born to them: Leighton 
Pearson, a Princeton honor graduate of the class of 
1909, and a graduate of the law department of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, now practising his profession 
in Philadelphia; Evelyn M. F., a graduate of Perkio- 
men Seminary, and now stenographer in her father's 
office; W. H. Eldon Scott, attending the Summit Hill 
Grammar School. 

Mr. Scott was elected a director of the Citizens' Na- 
tional Bank of Lansford at its organization and has 
been the secretary of the board of directors ever since. 
He is also secretary of the Summit Hill Water Com- 
pany. He stands for every movement for the better- 
ment of the town and has been connected with the pub- 
lic schools for the past twenty-five years, either as 
teacher, director or solicitor. It was mainly through 
his grit, foresight and effort that the grand new high 
school building of the town became possible. The 
boys and girls of the future will have cause to grate- 
fully remember him. 

Seidle, Hon. Charles H., formerly an associate judge 
of Carbon county, and for many years prominently 



; 


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1 


1 

4 

i 




1 
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<r^ ^/ ^-a^lp^C^C^ 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 565 

identified with the business and financial interests of 
the southern portion of the county, was born in Ma- 
honing township, December 8, 1842. 

His parents were Jonathan and Sallie (Kocher) 
Seidle, natives of Pennsylvania, the former born in 
Northampton county and the latter in Carbon. His 
ancestors, both paternal and maternal, were among the 
early settlers of the Lehigh Valley, with the develop- 
ment of which their names are intimately associated. 

C. H. Seidle is the eldest of a family of six children. 
Growing to maturity in the locality of his birth, he en- 
joyed no educational advantages beyond those afforded 
by the public schools. Being imbued with a thirst for 
knowledge, however, he atoned for his lack of early 
training by self-culture. He began life as a school 
teacher, following this calling during the winter 
months for five years, also conducting a summer school 
at Lehighton for a short time. 

In 1863 he entered the employ of Daniel Nothstein, 
a dealer in general merchandise at Normal Square, 
Mahoning township, as a clerk. 

On New Year's Day, 1865, he married Catharine A. 
Nothstein, the merchant's only daughter, succeeding 
to the business upon the death of his father-in-law, 
eight years later, and conducting it to the present time. 

Judge Seidle, as he is familiarly known, was the 
postmaster at Normal until the introduction of the free 
delivery system in the township, in 1903. The post- 
office was kept at his store, and other members of his 
family held the office at various times. 

He was elected to the associate judgeship as the nom- 
inee of the Democratic party in 1888, serving for the 
term of five years. He was one of the original stock- 
holders of the First National Bank of Lehighton, be- 
coming a member of its board of directors. 



566 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

In 1902 he actively promoted the establishment of the 
Citizens' National Bank, of the same place, and was 
elected as the first president of that institution. He 
resigned from the directorate of this bank in the fall 
of 1911. 

When Lee invaded Pennsylvania, in 1863, Mr. Sei- 
dle enlisted for the emergency, becoming a corporal in 
Company F, Thirty-fourth Regiment, Pennsylvania 
Militia, performing guard duty at Reading and at 
Philadelphia. 

Of the three children born to him and his wife, one 
is deceased. Emma L., their only daughter is the wife 
of N. M. Balliet, a member of the Carbon county bar, 
with whom Ira E., the only son, who is also a lawy^er, 
is associated under the firm name of Balliet and Seidle. 
They have their offices in Lehighton. 

Mr. Seidle is the owner of a farm in Mahoning town- 
ship, which he manages in connection with his other in- 
terests. He is one of the elders of Ben Salem Lutheran 
church, situated in the Lizard Creek Valley. 

Seidle, Ira E., junior member of the law firm of 
Balliet and Seidle, of Lehighton, is the son of Hon. 
Charles H. and Kate A (Nothstein) Seidle. He was 
born at Normal, Mahoning township, the home of his 
maternal ancestors since Revolutionary times, on De- 
cember 11, 1869. 

Graduating from the Lehighton high school with the 
class of 1884, he entered Palatinate College in 1886; a 
year later he entered Muhlenberg, which has since hon- 
ored him with the degree of A. M., graduating from 
that institution in 1890. 

In 1891 he went to Yale, where he completed his gen- 
eral education, and received the degree of B.A. He 
began his legal studies at the Yale law school, finish- 
ing his course at the law school of the University of 




Cy^^'^^^-^^, 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 567 

Pennsylvania in 1895, and receiving the degree of 
L.L.B. During this year he became a member of the 
Philadelphia bar, and was later admitted to practise 
before the Superior and Supreme courts of Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Prior to this he had taught school for two terms and 
had served as principal of the Normal Institute for a 
year. After practising his profession in Philadelphia 
for a time he formed a partnership with his brother-in- 
law, N. M. Balliet, succeeding to the legal practise of 
the late Senator W. M. Rapsher at Lehighton. The 
firm also maintains an office at Palmerton. In addition 
to his other affairs, Mr. Seidle is the manager and 
treasurer of the Lehighton Brick Company, and is the 
secretary of the Lehigh Valley Building and Loan 
Association, of which he is a director. He is also a di- 
rector of the Carbon County Industrial Society, under 
the auspices of which the county fair is annually held 
at Lehighton, having served as the secretary of the 
association. 

For some time he held the position of postmaster at 
Normal and was borough solicitor of Lehighton for 
one year. Mr. Seidle is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity at Lehighton, being also identified with 
Lilly Chapter, R. A. M., and Packer Commandery, K. 
T. of Mauch Chunk. He is a past officer of all these 
bodies. His political allegiance is given to the Demo- 
cratic party, and he attends the Lutheran church. 

On October 2, 1900, he was married to Elizabeth M., 
daughter of Jesse L. and Amanda (Heberling) Gabel, 
of Lehighton. Their only child, Louisa A. Seidle, was 
born on December 24, 1902. 

Sendel, Robert 0., chief burgess of Weatherly, and 
one of the prominent young business men of that town, 
was born there on February 22, 1880. 



568 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

His father, J. C. Sendel, was a native of Mahoning 
township. Educated at Palatinate College and at the 
AUentown Business College, he taught school for sev- 
eral years. 

In 1874, he removed to Weatherly, near which place 
he engaged in farming for a time. In 1887 he pur- 
chased the hardware business of J. F. Kressley, be- 
coming also a dealer in coal, lumber, farming imple- 
ments, and engaging in general contracting. Being 
possessed of first rate business ability, he prospered 
from the start, later opening a branch store at Lehigh- 
ton, in association with Peter Rouse. 

He was one of the promoters of Weatherly 's large 
silk throwing mill, and was one of the organizers of 
the Weatherly Foundry and Machine Company, and 
of the First National Bank of Weatherly, in both of 
which he was a director. He was also influential in the 
establishment of the fire department of the town, of 
which he was for a time the chief, besides filling many 
other positions of trust and responsibility. 

In 1890 he was elected by the Republican party to the 
office of county commissioner. It was during his in- 
cumbency that the present court house of the county 
was erected. 

Mr. Sendel was married in 1877 to Vesta, daughter 
of Simon and Harriet Blose, of Bowmanstown. Six 
children were born to them: Robert 0., Ario, Hattie, 
Carrie, Austin and Kenneth. The father died on De- 
cember 6, 1902, aged fifty years. 

R. 0. Sendel graduated from the Weatherly high 
school with the class of 1896, beginning his business 
career as a clerk in his father's store in his native town. 

During four years he filled a similar position in the 
store at Lehighton. Upon the death of his father, he 
returned to Weatherly to assume the management of 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 569 

his estate. Among the first things claiming his atten- 
tion was the construction of the passenger station of 
the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Mauch Chunk, the con- 
tract for which had been awarded to his father just be- 
fore his demise. This is one of the finest stations on 
the entire road. 

At the age of twenty-two he was elected as a director 
of the First National Bank of Weatherly, being then 
one of the youngest bank directors in the United States. 

Mr. Sendel was chosen to fill the office of chief bur- 
gess in 1909, as the candidate of the Republican party. 

In 1911, he purchased the interest of the other heirs 
in the estate of his father, being now the sole owner of 
the business, which he conducts in all its details, as be- 
fore. 

On October 2, 1907, he was married to Mattie, daugh- 
ter of Peter Heim, of Lehighton. They have two chil- 
dren: Margaret M. and Robert Charles. 

Mr. Sendel is a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
and attends the Reformed church. 

Setzer, Chester G., district attorney of Carbon coun- 
ty, prominent in fraternal society circles and as a 
worker in the cause of popular education, is the son 
of ex-sheriff Milton Setzer and his wife Hannah. 

He was born November 17, 1880, one year prior to 
the removal of the family of his father from Monroe 
county to Franklin township, where he grew to matur- 
ity and where he still resides. His early education was 
acquired in the public schools of this district and in 
those of Mauch Chunk, graduating from the high 
school of the last named place with the class of 1899. 

After serving three terms as a school teacher he en- 
tered Dickinson Law School, from which he graduated 
in June, 1905. He was admitted to practice in the 
supreme court of Pennsylvania during the same month, 



570 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

while he became a member of the bar of Carbon county 
in October, 1905. 

Opening an office in Weissport, he has successfully- 
practised his profession there since. He was elected 
to the office of district attorney, as the candidate of the 
Republican party, in 1911, by a large majority. 

Mr. Setzer has been a member of the school board of 
Franklin Independent District for a number of years, 
acting as its secretary. He is also secretary of the 
School Directors' Association of Carbon County, while 
he has served as a delegate to the meetings of the 
State Association of School Directors on several occa- 
sions. 

He is a member of the Eagles, P. 0. S. of A., 0. of 
I. A., and of the Junior Mechanics; he was also state 
president of the Pennsylvania Deutsch Gesellschaft in 
1907. 

Setzer, Milton, an ex-sheriff of Carbon county, and 
influential in the councils of the Republican party, is 
one of the descendants of Michael Setzer, who emi- 
grated to America from Germany, September 26, 1753. 
He settled in Hamilton township, Monroe county, and 
he and his two sons served in the Continental Army 
during the Revolutionary War. 

The father of Milton Setzer was William Setzer, a 
great-grandson of Michael Setzer, who was born in 
Monroe county in 1836. He was married to Sarah B. 
Woodling, and the issue of their union was eight chil- 
dren. William Setzer was a stone mason by trade, and 
while being a staunch Republican he filled various of- 
fices of trust and honor in a district that was strongly 
Democratic. 

During the Civil War he served with distinction as 
a member of the famous Eighty-first Regiment, Penn- 
sylvania Volunteers, and was wounded at the battles 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 571 

of Spottsylvania and the Wilderness. He died, De- 
cember 25, 1896. 

Milton Setzer was born March 2, 1857, in Jackson 
township, Monroe county, where the days of his youth 
were spent. Coming to Carbon county in 1881, he was 
employed successively as a boatman on the Lehigh 
Canal and as a brakeman on the Lehigh Valley Rail- 
road. He served as constable and as tax collector for 
Franklin township for a period of seven years. 

In 1894, at the age of 37, Mr. Setzer was elected to 
the office of sheriff of Carbon county, and at the ex- 
piration of his term, in association with John Rehrig, 
for a time conducted the Mansion House at Mauch 
Chunk. This partnership being dissolved, Mr. Setzer 
continued the same enterprise with J. A. Bonnell as his 
partner, under the firm name of Setzer & Bonnell. 

Until recently he was the proprietor of the Franklin 
House, situated in East Weissport, Franklin township. 

Mr. Setzer was married to Hannah Miller, a daugh- 
ter of Jacob and Elizabeth Miller, of Jackson township, 
Monroe township. Their children are: Chester Gar- 
field, Ada Irene, Arlington, William and Sarah Alice, 
who is the wife of Webster J. Hongen, of Allentown. 
Arlington and William follow the machinist's trade 
and live in Tamaqua, while Ada remains at home. 
Chester is a member of the Carbon county bar. 

Fraternally Mr. Setzer is allied with the Sons of 
Veterans, Eagles, Order of Independent Americans 
and the Junior Mechanics. 

Shive, Burdwell W., a Palmerton justice of the 
peace, and a veteran of the Spanish- American War, is 
descended from pioneer settlers of Carbon county. 

His paternal grandfather, Ephraim Shive, was born 
in Mahoning township. He was married to Sallie 
Strohl, whose ancestors were among the very first to 



572 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, 

brave the dangers and hardships of the wilderness 
lying north of the Blue Ridge. 

Hazard was the place of nativity of his mother's 
father, William Bowman. He was married to Cath- 
arine Behler, whose forefathers were early residents 
of Lower Towamensing township. 

Burdwell W., the son of James Wilson and Mary A. 
(Bowman) Shive, was born at Lehigh Gap on Janu- 
ary 2, 1877. Leaving school at the age of fifteen, he 
served first as a clerk in a general store at Bowmans- 
town, and later at Lansford. 

At the breaking out of the Spanish war, he enlisted 
in Company B, Eight Regiment, Pennsylvania Volun- 
teer Infantry, and was stationed at various posts 
throughout the South. But the war closed before he 
saw any active service. Returning to Lansford, he con- 
ducted a bakery in association with Harry Mohn, under 
the firm name of Mohn and Shive, for about a year. 
He then came to Palmerton, opening a tonsorial estab- 
lishment, which he still conducts. He is also a dealer 
in real estate and fire insurance. In 1907 he was elect- 
ed to the ofiBce of justice of the peace for Lower Towa- 
mensing township. 

On October 17, 1904, Mr. Shive was married to Agnes 
M., daughter of A. 0. Steffan and his wife Emma, of 
South Bethlehem. Their only child is B. Hoyt Shive. 

Mr. Shive is active and well-known in secret society 
circles. 

Si tier, Daniel W., a well-known member of the bar 
of Carbon county, and a resident of Mauch Chunk, was 
born in Mahoning township, January 28, 1867, a son 
of Charles and Priscilla (Snyder) Sitler. 

The father was a farmer of much native ability, and 
was well-read ; having missed the privileges of a liberal 
education, however, he was willing to make sacrifices 
in order to make them possible to his children. 



HISTORY OF CAKBON COUNTY. 573 

Three of his daughters became teachers; two grad- 
uated from normal schools, while one of the number, 
Ida Sitler, is a product of the University of Michigan. 

After some preparation at the Normal Institute, 
situated near his home, Daniel taught district school 
for four years. Entering Williams College, Massa- 
chusetts, in the fall of 1887, he graduated with the 
class of 1891. Subsequently he was engaged as an in- 
structor of mathematics in a private school in Phila- 
delphia for a year. 

In the summer of 1892 he began the study of law in 
the oflfice of Hon. James S. Biery, of Allentown, being 
admitted to practise in the courts of Lehigh county in 
1895. During the following year he became a member 
of the bar of Carbon county, locating at Lansford, and 
being the first attorney to open an office in that town. 
During his residence at Lansford he served as the so- 
licitor of the borough. 

In 1898 he was nominated by the Republican party 
for the office of district attorney, and upon his election 
he removed to Mauch Chunk. 

As the prosecuting officer of the county, he was 
painstaking and efficient, serving a single term. Since 
then he has been engaged in the general practise of the 
law. 

Mr. Sitler has been admitted to practice in the high- 
er courts of the state, and in the district court of the 
United States. He has established a reputation as a 
careful, conscientious lawyer, always mindful of the 
interests of his clients, while living up to the best tra- 
ditions of his profession. 

In 1897 he was married to Amanda, daughter of 
Nathan and Sarah Balliet, of Mahoning township. 
Their three children are: Helen, Mary and Charles 
Everett. 



574 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Shull, Brinton M., supervisory principal of the 
schools of Lehighton, is a native of Perry county, 
where he was born January 17, 1873. He is tne son 
of David and Lea (Yohe) Shull, being one of a family 
of ten children. He spent his early life on his father 's 
farm, attended the public schools and graduated from 
Marysville high school with the class of 1889. 

In 1892 he graduated from the Shippensburg State 
Normal School, later taking a post graduate course at 
the West Chester State Normal School, a course in the 
Harrisburg School of Commerce and in Milton Univer- 
sity, Baltimore. 

Prof. Shull began his career as a teacher in a dis- 
trict school of his native county ; he taught one year in 
a village high school in Dauphin county, and then in the 
high school of his home township. He came to Lehigh- 
ton in 1898, being first employed as a grammar school 
teacher, and serving successively as principal of the 
First Ward building, assistant principal, and then 
principal of the high school. In 1908 he was appointed 
to the newly created office of supervisory principal of 
all the schools of the borough. 

While being abreast of the times along lines of the 
best thought in his chosen field of endeavor, and while 
striving intelligently and systematically for the im- 
provement and upbuilding of the schools under his 
supervision. Prof. Shull is opposed to fads and non- 
essentials in educational work. 

He was married, November 28, 1907, to Carrie E., 
daughter of Reuben Fenstermacher and his wife La- 
vina, of Lehighton. 

Fraternally Mr. Shull is connected with the Patriotic 
Order Sons of America, Knights of Malta, Odd Fel- 
lows and Free and Accepted Masons. He is a mem- 
ber of the United Evangelical church. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 575 

Smith, Alfred F., cashier of the Citizens' National 
Bank of Lehighton, was born in East Penn township, 
Carbon county, on December 29, 1872. 

His father, Owen Smith, was a native of Lehigh 
county, where he remained until his sixteenth year, 
when he came to East Penn township, where he fol- 
lowed the vocation of a farmer. He was married to 
Sallinda Andreas, who was of English descent, and 
who bore him seven sons, all of whom grew to ma- 
turity. During the eighties the family removed to 
Mahoning township, where the mother died in 1897, 
being in her sixtieth year. The father died in 1909, in 
the seventy- third year of his age. 

Alfred F. Smith acquired his early training in the 
public schools, later attending the Kutztown State 
Normal School, and taking a course in the American 
Business College at Allentown. He taught school for 
three years in Mahoning township, and for a time 
served as a clerk in a general store in Lehighton. 

For two years he was a bookkeeper in the employ of 
H. A. Buchman, of East Mauch Chunk. In 1898 Mr. 
Smith accepted a position as bookkeeper and general 
manager for 0. J. Saeger, a wholesale dealer in fruit 
and produce at Lehighton. Following this he served as 
a traveling salesman for a wholesale grocery firm, of 
Bethlehem, Pa. 

Early in 1909 he entered the Citizens' National 
Bank of Lehighton, as a teller, succeeding A. S. Beisel 
as cashier of that institution on July 1, 1910. 

Mr. Smith wedded Lillie McLean, daughter of Rob- 
ert McLean, of Mahoning township, on May 21, 1806. 
Their children are : Ralph A. and Russel R. 0. Smith. 

Mr. Smith is an adherent of the Reformed church, 
while being a supporter of the principles espoused by 
the Republican party. 



576 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Smith, Hon. Jacob W., a druggist, of Upper Mauch 
Chunk, and representing Carbon county in the state 
legislature, was born at Lititz, Lancaster county, Pa., 
September 12, 1860. He attended the district schools, 
and was later a student at the Lititz Academy, having 
also been privately tutored by Prof. Christian Myers 
at Lincoln, Lancaster county. 

For a short time he worked on a farm, after which 
he learned the trade of a blacksmith. In 1884 he came 
to Mauch Chunk, entering the oflfice of Doctor Freder- 
ick G. Ibachs, for whom he later conducted a pharmacy. 
He purchased this business from Doctor Ibachs in 
1891, and has conducted it continuously since that time- 
He also has charge of the sub-station of the Mauch 
Chunk postoffice, located in the Second Ward. Mr. 
Smith has been a member of the school board of the 
borough for fifteen years, and is a member of the fire 
department, having been vice-president of the Fire- 
men's Relief Association for several years. 

He is active in fraternal society circles, and was one 
of the organizers of Wahnetah Castle, Knights of the 
Golden Eagle, and of Hospitaller Commandery, No. 79, 
Knights of Malta, of which he is a past grand com- 
mander. He is also a member of the Patriotic Order 
Sons of America. Mr. Smith is a member of the Evan- 
gelical church, while his wife, who was Carrie Weyhen- 
meyer, daughter of the late Joseph Weyhenmeyer, of 
Mauch Chunk, whom he married in 1891, is a member 
of the Methodist Episcopal church. 

Mr. Smith is a supporter of the Democratic party. 
He was elected to the legislature in 1912. 

Smith, Marshall L. Born in Chester county. Pa., in 
1839, and not coming to this immediate section of the 
state until middle life, M. L. Smith, who was the son 
of Charles and Margaret Smith, is nevertheless enti- 




M. L. Smith. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 577 

tied to a secure place in the list of those who left the 
impress of their personalities upon the life and activ- 
ities of Carbon county. He sprang from Colonial 
stock, and received his early education in the public 
schools of his native coimty. 

While still quite young he engaged in the milling 
business for a short time. Later he read law in the of- 
fice of Charles Pennypacker, subsequently chief bur- 
gess of West Chester, and a cousin of ex-Governor 
Samuel W. Pennypacker, of Pennsylvania. Forsaking 
the law for a business career, he opened a real estate 
and insurance office in West Chester. 

In 1876 Mr. Smith engaged in the manufacture of 
paint ore in Chester county, removing his plant two 
years later to Lehigh Gap, and later to Slatington, at 
which places he conducted his business for ten years. 
For a number of years he was also interested in a 
coal washery at Buck Mountain. 

In 1887 Mr. Smith came to Hudsondale, situated in 
Packer township, obtaining a lease on the grounds and 
buildings formerly occupied by the machine shop and 
foundry of S. W. Hudson. Here Mr. Smith made the 
greatest business success of his career, manufacturing 
paint ore or ochre, on quite an extensive scale. The 
mill where the grinding is done has been operated day 
and night almost continuously for nearly a quarter of 
a century, furnishing employment to quite a number of 
workers. The product is shipped principally to a sin- 
gle firm, the George W. Blabon Company, of Philadel- 
phia. 

About ten years after coming to Hudsondale, Mr. 
Smith acquired through purchase the property where 
the mill stands and the farm adjoining. He then be- 
came an enthusiastic farmer, and the results of his 
agricultural operations were such as to justify the 



578 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

pride that he manifested in this phase of his business. 
About this time Mr. Smith also acquired a residence 
in Weatherly, where he soon became a dominant fac- 
tor in municipal politics. He was five times elected to 
the office of burgess, and proved himself to be perhaps 
the most j^^ogressive and fearless executive that 
Weatherly had until then. The borough building and 
the electric light plant were both erected during his 
administrations, while many other improvements of a 
public nature, championed by him, were made through- 
out the town. He believed in the strict enforcement of 
the borough ordinances and treated all classes of citi- 
zens impartially and alike. He was a man of positive 
convictions and of masterful personality, nature hav- 
ing endowed him with strong combative qualities, while 
he had cultivated a ready wit and a nimble tongue. He 
delighted to debate on political questions, giving an 
opponent no quarter, and maintaining his own position 
against any odds. He was a life-long Republican. 

Beneath a somewhat brusque exterior he carried a 
heart as tender and as loyal as a woman's, being al- 
ways ready to give comfort and help of a more prac- 
tical nature to those who were in distress or in any 
way in need of assistance. He was constitutionally an 
optimist, allowing no misfortune to long overwhelm or 
cloud his spirit. 

Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Mary Eliza- 
beth Reazor, a daughter of John and Jane Reazor, of 
Norristown, in 1860. Six sons and two daughters 
were born to them: Charles W., Ida May, Talbot S., 
Allen H., William M., Cora, Thomas E., John M. 

Mr. Smith died of pulmonary trouble at his home in 
Hudsondale after a prolonged illness on February 20, 
1909, being aged nearly 70 years. His remains repose 
in Union Cemetery at Weatherly. All of his children 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 579 

excepting Talbot preceded him in death. His widow, 
patient and kindly to the last, departed this life on 
July 8, 1912. 

Mr. Smith was a member of the Presbyterian church, 
and was connected with the Masonic fraternity at 
Hazleton. 

Smith, Talbot Sidwell, son of Marshall L. and Eliza- 
beth (Reazor) Smith, was born in Chester county. Pa., 
on January 22, 1868. Educated in the public schools, he 
at an early age entered the establishment of his fa- 
ther, who conducted an ochre mill, successively located 
at Lehigh Gap, Slatington, and at Hudsondale. 

For a time he was a superintendent for the firm of 
Smith and Weaver, operating a coal washery at Buck 
Mountain. In 1887, upon the establishment of the Hud- 
sondale Ochre Works by his father, he removed to 
Weatherly, taking part in the conduct of the business. 
About ten years later he took up his residence in Hud- 
sondale, becoming the superintendent of the plant, and 
so continuing until his death. 

While engaged in his duties one day, he was caught 
in the machinery of the mill, sustaining injuries from 
which he never fully recovered. 

Mr. Smith was the assistant chief of Weatherly 's 
first fire company. He was one of the leaders in the 
movement which resulted in the erection of the chapel 
of the Bethany Union Sunday school, of Hudsondale, 
of which he was a loyal member. He was also a mem- 
ber of the Lutheran church at Weatherly. 

At the age of eighteen he was united in marriage to 
Emma, daughter of John and Elizabeth Link, of Sla- 
tington, Lehigh county. The following children were 
born to them: Hattie, wife of Samuel 0. Gerhard; 
Cora, who married Brice Brenckman ; Gertrude, Dama, 
Florence, Marshall, Helen, George and Talbot. 



580 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

As a citizen, Mr. Smith was public spirited and 
progressive. At the time of his death, which occurred 
on February 14, 1910, he was a member of the board 
of supervisors of Packer township. 

Smitham, James, one of the best equipped of the 
younger members of the bar of Carbon county, is the 
son of Thomas and Anna (Meese) Smitham, being of 
English descent. 

His father is living retired at Nesquehoning, Pa., 
where he has resided for the last fifty years. 

James was born at that place on March 12, 1872, 
gaining his preliminary training in the common schools 
and attending Millersville State Normal School, where 
he graduated in 1891. He then pursued a course in the 
Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., after 
which he taught school for two years at Nesquehoning. 
Subsequently he enrolled as a student at Dickinson 
College, preparatory to entering Princeton University, 
graduating in the classical course from the latter in- 
stitution in 1897. 

Choosing to follow a legal career, he studied law at 
Harvard and in the offices of Bertollette and Barber at 
Mauch Chunk, being admitted to the bar in 1900, and 
successfully practising his profession since that time. 
In 1906 he was appointed referee in bankruptcy for 
Carbon county, which position he still holds. 

Mr. Smitham was married to Anna S. Pierce, of 
Williamsport, Pa., on June 18, 1904. They have two 
children, Thomas and Mary, the family residing at 
Mauch Chunk. 

Mr. Smitham is a member of the Masonic fraternity. 

Snyder, Nathan, prominent in the business and in- 
dustrial affairs of Carbon county, was born at Heidel- 
berg, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, in 1823. He spent 
his boyhood on his father's farm, subsequently mas- 



HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 581 

tering the trade of a shoemaker, in addition to tiiat of 
a carpenter. During his eighteenth year he walked 
from his home in Heidelberg to Mauch Chunk, where 
he readily found employment as a carpenter and boat- 
builder. For some time after locating here it was his 
custom to return to his home in Lehigh county on foot 
each Saturday night, in order to spend Sunday with his 
family, coming back to Mauch Chunk in time to begin 
work with the other men on Monday morning. 

Having by industry and thrift accumulated $800, he 
allied himself in marriage to Matilda Peters, a daugh- 
ter of Henry Peters, of East Penn township. Soon 
after the taking of this step, Mr. Snyder opened a 
small store, near the Four-Mile House, in Mahoning 
township. 

In 1846 he went to Weissport, where he established 
a boat yard, which he conducted successfully for more 
than a quarter of a century. He also purchased and 
enlarged the tavern known as the Franklin House, of 
which he became the landlord, and in which he conduct- 
ed a general store. Disposing of this property after 
a time he built the nucleus of the large store, situated 
on the opposite side of the street from the Franklin 
House, now owned by his son, Milton. He also became 
the owner of a similar establishment at Coal Dale, 
Schuylkill county. 

After retiring from business as a boat builder, Mr. 
Snyder, in 1886, established a large planing mill at 
East Weissport ; the supervision of this plant occupied 
much of his time until 1891, when it was totally de- 
stroyed by fire, entailing a loss of $60,000, upon which 
there was no insurance. 

He was a lover of nature and the life out-of-doors, 
and he was the owner of two fine farms in Franklin 
township. 



582 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Mr. Snyder was happy in his domestic relations, and 
was the father of eight children, as follows: Sarah, 
wife of George Laury, of Lehighton ; Fietta, who mar- 
ried E. G. Zern, of the same place; Aaron F., now a 
prosperous business man, of Weissport; Clara, who 
died in infancy ; Mary, Milton, Emma and Matilda. 

Mr. Snyder held pronounced views on political and 
religious matters, being a staunch Republican, while in 
his latter years he was a loyal supporter and firm ad- 
herent of the United Evangelical church. His death 
occurred on January 11, 1897. 

Stemler, Quentin, president of the Citizens' National 
Bank, of East Mauch Chunk, also successful as a deal- 
er in grain, feed and livestock, was born at Steralers- 
ville. Carbon county, April 19, 1870. 

His father was Reuben Stemler, a farmer, while his 
mother, before her marriage, bore the name of Louisa 
Smith, both being natives of Carbon county. Their 
children were Masina, the wife of Lewis Christman, of 
Weissport ; Emma, who is married to Harry Pettit, an 
electrician at Palmerton; Elmira, wife of Pharon An- 
drew, of Lehighton; Quentin, James, Charles, Wilson 
and Oscar. 

Having acquired a common school education, Quen- 
tin was called upon, in his twentieth year, to take the 
place of his father as the head of the household, the 
elder stemler having been removed by death. As the 
oldest male member of the family he discharged the 
duty thus devolving upon him with kindness and fidel- 
ity, and when those who were younger had become self- 
supporting, he came to East Mauch Chunk, where he 
conducted a local express business for seven or eight 
years. Later he went into the cattle business, supply- 
ing the butchers of the lower end of Carbon county, 
and handling several car loads of stock weekly. In 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 5g3 

addition to this he conducts a large grain and feed 
store in East Mauch Chunk. 

When the Citizens' National Bank, of East Mauch 
Chunk, was organized, in 1906, he became a stockholder 
and was chosen as its first president. Owing to the 
close proximity of the old and well-established banks 
of Mauch Chunk, just across the river, many doubted 
the feasibility of establishing this new institution, but 
Mr. Stemler manifested his confidence in the success 
of the venture from the start, and results have vindi- 
cated his judgment. The bank has grown stronger, 
slowly but steadily, and on July 1, 1910, a dividend of 
four per cent, on its capital stock was declared, while 
a substantial amount was added to the surplus fund. 

Mr. Stemler was joined in wedlock to Aquilla Beltz, 
a daughter of David Beltz, one of Franklin township 's 
foremost citizens, November 10, 1892. Harold, their 
only child, is now an attendant of the schools of East 
Mauch Chunk. 

Mr. Stemler is a member of the Odd Fellows and 
of the Red Men, while heing an adherent of the faith 
of the Reformed church. 

Straup, D. 0., president of the First National Bank 
of Palmerton, and an ex-commissioner of Carbon 
county, is the youngest son of the late Charles Straup, 
who was the owner of much of the land on which Pal- 
merton now stands. It was on his farm that Fort Le- 
high, one of the two frontier forts of Carbon county, 
was located. The fort was built by the settlers in the 
latter part of 1755, and served as a haven of safety 
during the period of hostilities attending the French 
and Indian War. Its ruins may still be seen, almost 
immediately in the rear of the banking institution of 
which Mr. Straup is the head. 



584 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Charles Straup was the son of David Straup, a na- 
tive of Bucks county, who in early life came to Lower 
Towamensing township. Later he worked in the coal 
quarry of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company 
at Summit Hill, but returned to Lower Towamensing 
and followed the occupation of a farmer. 

Charles Straup was born in 1828, and, while still a 
young man, was married to Julia Ann Snyder, daugh- 
ter of Daniel Snyder, of Lower Towamensing town- 
ship. They had four children: Caroline, William, 
Wesley and David Oliver. The first and last named 
only survive, Caroline being the wife of Andrew Seem, 
of Bethlehem. Charles Straup died in 1898. 

D. 0. Straup was born in Lower Towamensing town- 
ship, June 15, 1860, attending the district schools until 
he became eighteen years of age. For fourteen years 
he rented and operated the farm owned by his father, 
and when the property was sold to the Palmer Land 
Company, he engaged in the lumber business, which 
he still successfully follows, being a dealer in sawed 
lumber, mine timber and ties. 

In 1902 Mr. Straup was elected on the Republican 
ticket to the office of county commissioner, being re- 
elected on his record in 1905. Three years later he was 
again urged to become a candidate for the office by his 
friends, but was defeated in the election by a slight 
margin. 

He was one of the organizers of the First National 
Bank of Palmerton, and has since served as its presi- 
dent. This is the youngest of the national banks of the 
county, and has been successful from the start. 

Mr. Straup has been twice married, his first wife 
having been Idella Schaeffer, a daughter of Charles 
Schaeffer, of Monroe county. The four children of 
this union were Clayton, Edith, Florence and Allen. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 535 

Allen and Clayton died in infancy, while Edith is the 
wife of Charles Stemler, of East Mauch Chunk, and 
Florence is married to Eobert Reinhart, of Palmerton. 

Following the death of his first wife, Mr. Straup 
wedded Catharine, daughter of William Silfies and his 
wife Fietta, of Kunkletown, Monroe county. The chil- 
dren of this marriage are Carrie and Horace Straup. 
Three other children died in infancy. 

Mr. Straup is an enthusiastic automobilist, and is 
the owner of one of the most beautiful homes in Pal- 
merton. 

In addition to his other business interests he has re- 
cently established himself as a dealer in flour, feed 
and grain. 

Strohl, Dennis, as his name indicates, is a repre- 
sentative of one of Carbon county's oldest families, 
his forefathers having been among the pioneer settlers 
on the north side of the Blue Ridge, in what is now 
Carbon county. His farm in Towamensing township 
is one of the most prosperous and best appointed in 
the county, manifesting every evidence of thrift and 
progressiveness. 

His grandfather, Nicholas Strohl, was a farmer in 
Lower Towamensing township. He was thrice mar- 
ried and became the father of a patriarchial family 
of thirty children. His death occurred at the advanced 
age of eighty-four years. 

Joel, the father of Dennis Strohl, was a farmer of 
Towamensing township. In early life he married 
Sarah Beer, who bore him seventeen children. Upon 
her death he married Katharine Hahn, with whom he 
had two children. He died March 10, 1910, being aged 
eighty-six years. 

Dennis Strohl was born May 11, 1858, in Towamen- 
sing township. He was brought up on his father's 



5gg HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

farm, attending the district schools until he became 
seventeen years of age. For five or six years he was in 
partnership with his brother Amos Strohl, engaging in 
the business of contracting and building. During this 
period they erected many of the dwellings of the bor- 
ough of Weatherly. At the age of twenty-three, Mr. 
Strohl purchased 107 acres of brush land in Towa- 
mensing township, and by hard labor he carved out of 
Uiis his present fine farm, upon which he has made 
many substantial improvements. Fourteen acres of 
the farm is devoted to a pear orchard, while sixteen 
acres is given over to apple trees. For a time Mr. 
Strohl also owned and operated the farm which origin- 
ally belonged to his father. 

He was united in wedlock at the age of twenty-eight 
to Anna, daughter of William Henning, of Monroe 
county. Their children are: Calvin H., Homer E., 
Florence 0., Theodore D., Pearl C, Norman C, Edna 
E. and Dorothy G. Strohl. 

Theodore is a graduate of the East Stroudsburg 
State Normal School, and is now engaged as a teacher. 

Calvin, born December 26, 1887, is one of the young- 
est justices of the peace in Pennsylvania, having been 
elected to that office when but a year past his majority. 
He is a product of the Polytechnic Institute, of Gil- 
berts, Pa., and has taught school for a number of 
terms. He has served as a member of the Republican 
county committee, and was a candidate for the office 
of jury commissioner in 1909, for which he was de- 
feated, having received a handsome vote, however. 

Mr. Strohl and his family are members of the Re- 
formed church. 

Strunk, William F., a native of Hudsondale, at pres- 
ent living near Coudersport, Potter county, Pa., was 
born on April 29, 1876. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 587 

His father, who bore the name of Herman, was 
brought to this country from Germany by his parents 
when a child, in 1849. They crossed the Atlantic in an 
old-fashioned sailing vessel, which narrowly escaped 
foundering during the voyage. 

When at last she reached the haven of her destina- 
tion, having been storm-tossed for many months, the 
rations on board had been reduced to a single barrel 
of crackers. 

The family first located at Phoenixville, Pa., settling 
permanently in Schuylkill county after a short time. 
Herman learned the trade of a blacksmith, and while 
still a young man located at Hudsondale, where he 
was married to Ellen Walton, and where he spent the 
remainder of his life. He was a master craftsman, 
and like the "Village Blacksmith" of whom Longfel- 
low sang, excelled as a shoer of horses. His death oc- 
curred in 1906. 

W. F. Strunk, who is one of a family of seven chil- 
dren, was educated in the public schools, and after 
various employments, learned the art of telegraphy. 

Most of his mature life has been spent in the service 
of the Tide Water Pipe Company, by whom he is now 
employed. 

During 1904 he served as the clerk of the auditors of 
Carbon county. He is a progressive Republican and 
is a member of the Reformed church. 

Struthers, James Robb, was born in Paisley, Scot- 
land on August 3, 1815. He was the son of Alexander 
Wallace and Jean Syme Struthers, and on his maternal 
side was a collateral descendant of William Wallace, 
the Scottish chief. His parents emigrated to America 
in 1819 and settled permanently in Philadelphia. 
James R., the subject of this sketch, received his sec- 
ondary education in the Manual Labor Academy of 



5g8 HI8T0BY OP CARBON COUNTY. 

Germantown. When this academy moved to Easton 
and became the nucleus of the jfirst student body of La- 
fayette College, he accompanied the principal, Dr. Jun- 
kin, who became the first president of the college, and 
completed the classical course as a member of the first 
class graduated from Lafayette, which college after- 
ward conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts. 
While in college he was one of the twelve founders of 
the Franklin Literary Society, a noted society that has 
since enrolled as members many men of national and 
international fame. After completing his college course 
he studied law under the Hon. James Madison Porter, 
of Easton, Pa., and for a short time taught school in 
Mauch Chunk. For a time he practiced law in Monroe 
county, residing at Stroudsburg, but on returning to 
Mauch Chunk at the time of the organization of Car- 
bon county, he was elected the first district attorney of 
the county, serving from 1843-46. 

At that time, the Columbia railroad, now part of the 
Pennsylvania system, was run by state authority and 
Mr. Struthers was appointed state agent of the road, 
with headquarters at Philadelphia. In 1844 he was 
elected a member of the Pennsylvania legislature on 
the Democratic ticket, and was re-elected in 1852 and 
1853, ranking as one of the most able and promi- 
nent members of the assembly. He was county treas- 
urer of Carbon county from 1849-1851. In 1864 he 
voted for Abraham Lincoln and incidentally drifted 
into the Republican party, receiving the honor of a 
senatorial nomination from his new political relations. 
Mr. Struthers was a man of unusual culture and 
brilliancy, ranking as one of the foremost lawyers 
in the state. He was frequently consulted in 
cases outside of his territory, represented many cor- 
porations, and his counsel was marked by a profound 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 589 

and exact knowledge of the law that was often con- 
firmed by favorable decisions to his clients in the high- 
er courts. His mind, however, was too active to keep 
him strictly within his professional traces, and he oc- 
casionally ventured into other fields besides the law. 

He was twice married. His first wife was Ellen Ber- 
ril Tolan, daughter of Hugh and Hannah MacDonald 
Tolan, and granddaughter of William MacDonald, 
born in the highlands of Scotland of that clan which 
^'is by every rule of antiquity, power and numbers, 
entitled to be spoken of before any others." Mrs. 
Struthers was a woman of remarkable Christian char- 
acter, a charter member of the First Presbyterian 
church of Mauch Chunk, and noted for her strong 
personality and spiritual qualities. Their children 
were: Jean Sym, who married Wm. B. Mack; Ellen 
Tolan, married to Daniel C. Heberling; Elizabeth, 
Sophia Bixler, married to Henry H. Ashley; Sally 
Ann (died in infancy) ; Alexander Wallace, married to 
Mary Louise Cooke; Hannah (died in infancy) ; James 
R., Jr., married to Mary Kirkhoff; Simon Cameron, 
married to Lucy Barnes ; John Adams, Agnes, Charles 
Skeer, married to Jeannette Marshall, and William^ 
married to Emma Wilson. Mrs. Struthers died on 
November 10, 1875, and Mr. Struthers, a few years 
later, married Margaret Van Dyke, who still survives. 

After retiring from active legal practice he settled in 
Wilkes-Barre, where his sons were prominently en- 
gaged in business, and died there in May, 1885, seventy 
years of age. He was buried beside his first wife in 
the Mauch Chunk cemetery. 

Swank, Philip R., well-known in building and loan 
association circles, and chief clerk in the coal traffic 
department of the Central Railroad of New Jersey at 
Mauch Chunk, is a resident of East Mauch Chunk. His 



590 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

father, Charles W. Swank, had charge of the shipping 
wharves of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company 
at East Manch Chunk and at Coalport for many years. 
Philip R. Swank was born in Upper Manch Chunk, 
March 23, 1860. His mother bore the maiden name of 
Margaret Andrews. 

After leaving the public schools, he pursued a course 
at the Allentown Business College, where he gradu- 
ated in 1877, acquiring especial proficiency in penman- 
ship. He gained his first practical experience in asso- 
ciation with his father in the flour and feed business. 
In 1883 he went to Towanda, Pa., to conduct a gro- 
cery store, returning to his home after two years and 
entering the service of the Lehigh Valley Railroad 
Company. He has filled his present position since 
1892. 

Mr. Swank was one of the organizers of the Progres- 
sive Building and Loan Association of East Mauch 
Chunk, through the agenc)^ of which many of the sub- 
stantial homes of that place and vicinity have been 
erected. This association now has assets amounting 
to more than half a million of dollars, and is recog- 
nized by the Banking Department of Pennsylvania as 
one of the best conducted associations of its kind in the 
state, never having lost a dollar since it was started, 
in 1892. Mr. Swank served as its secretary and treas- 
urer for eighteen years, still holding the first named 
office. He also assisted in organizing the Lehigh Val- 
ley Building and Loan Association of Lehighton, and 
the Workingmen's Association, of Summit Hill, be- 
sides installing the systems of a number of similar in- 
stitutions in the county, and giving his services as an 
expert accountant. 

He is a charter member of the Memorial Presbyter- 
ian church of East Mauch Chunk, of which he was one 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 591 

of the founders, acting as an elder and clerk of the ses- 
sion. On March 21, 1882, he was married to Emma M., 
daughter of David Snyder, of Millport, Carbon coun- 
ty. They have two sons, David Lloyd, who is a gradu- 
ate of Lafayette College, now identified with the 
Wilkes-Barre Railway Company, of Wilkes-Barre, 
Pa., and Charles W. Swank, Jr., a public accountant, of 
New York. 

Taylor, Henry C, of Audenried, was born at Potts- 
ville, Schuylkill county, on October 29, 1838, the son 
of Charles W. and Susanna Taylor. A few years sub- 
sequent to his birth his parents removed to Miners- 
ville, in the same county, where they resided for more 
than sixty years. 

The subject of this notice was educated in the com- 
mon schools and at Dickinson Seminary, Williamsport, 
Pa. Enlisting in 1862, in the One Hundred and Twenty- 
Ninth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, he became 
quartermaster sergeant of the regiment, serving in 
that capacity until his command was mustered out of 
service. In 1868 he was appointed to the position of 
bookkeeper and paymaster of the Honey Brook Coal 
Company at Audenried. Later this company was ab- 
sorbed by the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, 
with which Mr. Taylor still remains after nearly forty- 
five years of service. 

On October 19, 1892, he was married to Mary K. 
Koons, of Lehighton. 

He is identified with the Grand Army of the Re- 
public and with the Benevolent and Protective Order 
of Elks. Like so many others among his soldier com- 
rades, he is a loyal Republican, having cast his first 
presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln. 

Thomas, Albert J., one of the most influential citi- 
zens of Lansford, where he has for many years been a 



592 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

leader in business and jfinancial circles, is the son of 
John and Jane (Morgan) Thomas, both natives of 
South Wales, but wedded in America. The father lo- 
cated in New York City, about 1832, and became a 
master machinist. Nearly twenty years later the fam- 
ily came to Old Sugarloaf, Hazleton, Luzerne county, 
where A. J. Thomas was born on June 8, 1853. 

He received scarcely any schooling, and at the age of 
nine began life as a slate picker on the breaker. Later 
he was employed inside the mines. At the age of four- 
teen he came to Summit Hill to work in a store at a 
salary of seven dollars a month and board. In 1871, 
he became the manager of a store conducted by John 
C. Edwards and Anthony Schneider, under the firm 
name of Schneider and Edwards. This arrangement 
continued for five years. Lansford was now rapidly 
expanding, and Mr. Thomas, John C. Edwards and C. 
C. Edwards opened a general store there under the 
style and title of J. C. Edwards and Company. C. C. 
Edwards retired from the firm in 1882, while Mr. 
Thomas and J. C. Edwards continued as partners until 
1898, when the former became sole owner of the busi- 
ness, still so remaining. 

By fair dealing and business acumen Mr. Thomas 
has made his establishment one of the largest and busi- 
est in the county. He has been a man of varied inter- 
ests and great activity, taking a leading part in the 
development and upbuilding of Lansford and its insti- 
tutions. He was influential in the establishment of the 
postoffice in the town, in 1873, while being a prime 
mover in the organization of the borough, accom- 
plished a few years later. 

When the Slavs began to pour into the coal fields, 
Mr. Thomas demonstrated his adaptability by early ac- 
quiring their language, thus facilitating intercourse 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. \ 593 

with the newcomers and gaining their confidence. He 
became their banker in his community and did a thriv- 
ing business among them as a steamship agent. He 
was one of the founders of the First National Bank of 
Lansford, and has served as its president from the 
start. This bank now has deposits of over a million 
dollars. 

While he has never sought political honors, he has 
served as a member of the school board and of town 
council, also being elected to the office of county audi- 
tor as a Eepublican. 

On February 9, 1875, he was married to Sarah, 
daughter of Thomas Walton, of Warsaw, Indiana. 
They have six surviving children. 

Mr. Thomas is a charter member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows and of the Knights of Pythias, 
of Lansford. He is the owner of valuable real estate in 
the town. By reading good books and by self-culture, 
he has atoned for his lack of early educational advan- 
tages. 

Trezise, Robert A., postmaster of Beaver Meadow, 
where he also conducts a grocery store, is the son of 
James and Mary (Stevens) Trezise. Both his parents 
were natives of Cornwall, England, where the father 
was during his youth employed as a miner of tin and 
copper. In 1865 he emigrated to the United States, 
locating at Stockton, Luzerne county. Pa., and follow- 
ing the coal mines. It was there that Robert was born 
on October 8, 1866. 

When he was six months old the family removed to 
Beaver Meadow, where he attended the public schools 
until his eleventh year. He then entered the mines as 
a door-tender, becoming a contract miner at the age of 
sixteen. He and his father sank the first slope at 
Evans' colliery, near Beaver Meadow. In 1890, Mr. 



594 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Trezise embarked in the grocery business, which he 
has since followed. In 1909, in association with J. M. 
Stauffer, under the firm name of Stauffer and Trezise, 
he operated a colliery at Beaver Brook, Luzerne coun- 
ty. This partnership was dissolved at the end of a 
year. 

Mr. Trezise is a stockholder and promoter of the 
Penn Forest Coal Company, recently started and pros- 
pecting for coal at Penrose's, Banks township. He was 
the prime mover in the organization of the Beaver 
Meadow Eural Telephone Company, of which he is the 
agent, also taking part in the establishment of the 
People 's Savings and Trust Company of Hazleton. He 
has for a long time been influential in the councils of 
the Republican party in the county, serving as a com- 
mitteeman and as delegate to various district confer- 
ences. In 1905 he was the nominee of his party for 
the office of register of wills and clerk of the orphans' 
court, but was defeated. During the following year 
he was appointed postmaster of Beaver Meadow. 

He was married in 1889 to Emma, daughter of John 
Fry and his wife, Susan, of Beaver Meadow. Their 
four children are : Alma, Edith, John and Mary. Rob- 
ert died in infancy. 

Mr. Trezise is identified with the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows and the Patriotic Order of Sons of 
America. 

Twining, Edgar, whose connection with the financial 
interests of Mauch Chunk antedated the establishment 
of the national banking system, and who was until re- 
cently the cashier of the Mauch Chunk National Bank, 
was born at Parryville on October 10, 1840. He was 
the son of Jonathan R. and Susan (Balliet) Twining. 
His paternal ancestors were Quakers, being numbered 
among the early settlers of Bucks county, Pa., while 





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HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 595 

his motlier was descended from Paul Balliet, who emi- 
grated to America from Germany in the year 1738. He 
located in Lehigh county, where he became a large land 
owner and the father of a numerous progeny. 

Jonathan Twining was the shipping agent of the old 
Beaver Meadow Coal Company at Parryville. When 
the freshet of 1841 destroyed the company's improve- 
ments there, the family removed to East Mauch Chunk, 
which then became the shipping point. Later the fa- 
ther became connected with the Hazleton Coal Com- 
pany at Penn Haven. 

Edgar Twining acquired his early education in the 
public schools, later studying under private tutors both 
at Mauch Chunk and at Allentown. At the age of six- 
teen or thereabout he began life as a clerk in the store 
of Mathias Fegley at Mauch Chunk, where he remained 
for a short period. After several changes he became 
the weighmaster of the Hazleton Coal Company at 
Penn Haven. In January, 1862, he was appointed as 
a teller of the Mauch Chunk Bank, a state institution, 
which was succeeded in 1864 by the First National 
Bank, the predecessor of the Mauch Chunk National 
Bank of to-day. 

In 1893 Mr. Twining was appointed as cashier of 
the First National Bank, serving as such until the ex- 
piration of its charter, in 1902, when the Mauch Chunk 
National Bank was organized, and he became its cash- 
ier, in which capacity he served during the remainder 
of his life. The duties and exactions of his vocation 
left him little opportunity for other employments or 
pursuits, although he was elected to the office of county 
treasurer as the nominee of the Republican party in 
1871. He was an executor and trustee of the estates 
of the late Gen. William Lilly and Edward B. Leisen- 
ring, both of whom left large fortunes. 



596 I HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

Mr. Twining never married. For years he made his 
home at the Mansion House, and during the last eigh- 
teen years of his life he lived at the American Hotel. 
He was one of Mauch Chunk's best known and most 
respected citizens. His death, on June 5, 1912, was 
caused by a paralytic stroke. 

Van Dyke, Burton, a native of Weatherly who has 
achieved success in the field of mechanics, is a son of 
"William Van Dyke, a veteran of the Civil War, and 
his wife Emily, who was a daughter of Nathaniel Zoll. 
Born at Weatherly on July 27, 1871, he was educated 
in the schools of that borough. At the age of sixteen 
he began life as a boilermaker 's apprentice in the shops 
of the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Weatherly, subse- 
quently fitting himself as a machinist. Having com- 
pleted his trade, he worked in many locomotive shops 
in various parts of the country. He also served in the 
capacity of chief engineer in some of the large hotels 
of Palm Beach, Miami, and other winter resorts of 
Florida. 

In 1900 Mr. Van Dyke accepted the position of mas- 
ter mechanic for the Spanish-American Iron Company 
at Daiquiri, Cuba. He has since become the superin- 
tendent of motive power for this company, having en- 
tire charge of all its rolling stock, machinery and min- 
ing equipment. This is the largest mining company of 
Cuba, being owned and controlled by the Pennsylvania 
Steel Company. Its output is shipped to Sparrows 
Point, Md., and to Steelton, Pa. 

Mr. Van Dyke is prominent in Masonic circles. He 
was united in marriage to Alverna L., daughter of 
David Holman, of Weatherly, on November 29, 1911. 
They have established their home in Cuba. 

Van Dyke, Warren R., resident secretary of the 
Democratic state committee at Harrisburg, and until 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 597 

recently a prominent figure in Carbon county, was born 
at Weatherly, April 23, 1877. He is a son of William 
and Emily (Zoll) Van Dyke, long-time residents of 
Weatherly, where the father was formerly employed 
as a locomotive engineer. 

Mr. Van Dyke is a product of the Weatherly high 
school, early learning the trade of a printer in the 
office of the Herald, of which paper he was the asso- 
ciate editor for a period of about ten years. Relin- 
quishing his newspaper duties, he embarked in the real 
estate and general insurance business, which he suc- 
cessfully followed at Weatherly. 

In 1905 he was elected as the nominee of the Demo- 
cratic party to the office of recorder of deeds of Car- 
bon county. At the expiration of his term, he was 
chosen as chief clerk to the county commissioners, in 
which capacity he served until the spring of 1911. He 
was then prevailed upon to accept the appointment 
which he is now holding, taking up his residence at 
Harrisburg. 

Mr. Van Dyke was one of Weatherly 's most progres- 
sive and public-spirited citizens, being always found in 
the van of every forward movement. He served as a 
member of town council and of the school board, while 
being a director of the Anthracite Building and Loan 
Association, and of the board of trade of the borough. 
As a member of the Methodist church he was particu- 
larly active in the religious life of the town, also serv- 
ing as the superintendent of the Sunday school con- 
nected with this organization. 

Mr. Van Dyke was united in marriage to Mattie, 
daughter of J. W. Hunter, of Weatherly, on February 
28, 1900. They have two children, Clare and Louise 
Van Dyke. Philip died in infancy. 



598 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Waaser, J. E., M.D., one of Carbon county's most 
prominent physicians, and formerly a director of the 
Middle Coal Field Poor District, is a son of John and 
Anna (Goas) Waaser, natives of Germany, who came 
to the United States in 1852, settling near Orwigsburg, 
Schuylkill county. After a few years they removed to 
Schuylkill Haven, where Mr. Waaser was employed at 
his trade as a cooper. 

John E. Waaser was born at Schuylkill Haven, Oc- 
tober 24, 1869. He attended the public schools of that 
town until his twelfth year, when he came to Hazleton 
to live with his sister, who is the wife of Doctor Wil- 
liam G. Dietz. Graduating from the Hazleton high 
school with the class of 1886, Mr. Waaser accepted a 
clerkship in the store of J. C. Haydon & Company, at 
Jeanesville, Luzerne county, remaining there for two 
years. Later he worked with a corps of civil engineers 
under the direction of L. 0. Emmerich, Esq., of Hazle- 
ton. In 1889 he entered Hahnemann Medical College, 
of Philadelphia, being graduated four years subse- 
quent to that time with high honors. After serving for 
a year as resident surgeon at the Hahnemann Hospital, 
Doctor Waaser located in East Mauch Chunk, and 
began the practice of his profession there. He enjoys 
a large practice and was successful from the start. 

Doctor Waaser has served as a school director of 
East Mauch Chunk for two terms, and was elected to 
the office of poor director for the term of three j^ears 
in 1906. He was one of the organizers of the Citizens' 
National Bank, of East Mauch Chunk, being now a di- 
rector of that institution. He is prominent in Masonic 
circles, while being a member of several other frater- 
nal societies. 

On September 14, 1904, Dr. Waaser was married to 
Mrs. Rebecca Morris Heraty, of Philadelphia. They 




^W 5^ IfeVn^. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 599 

have two children, Anna and John. Doctor Waaser is 
a member and vestryman of the Episcopal church, and 
lives in a beautiful residence on Center street. 

Wagner, Levi Fox, an ex-burgess of Weatherly, and 
for many years a foreman for the Lehigh Valley Rail- 
road Company, is a native of Northampton county, but 
now lives in Lehighton. 

Charles Wagner, the father of Levi F. Wagner, grew 
to manhood in Northampton county. He learned the 
trade of a wheelwright, and in early life was married 
to Gertrude E. Schumann. They became the parents 
of seven children. Subsequent to his marriage, Mr. 
Wagner removed with his family to Pike county, where 
he conducted a farm. He spent the last fifteen years 
of his life in retirement at Stroudsburg, where he died, 
about 1891, at the age of seventy-six years. 

Levi F. Wagner was born at Martin's Creek on De- 
cember 25, 1838. He spent his boyhood on his father's 
farm in Pike county. He was educated in the Bush- 
kill Academy near Stroudsburg, and learned the car- 
penter's trade. In 1864 he came to Mauch Chunk, 
where he remained for a year, after which he entered 
the employ of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company at 
Weatherly. He served as a foreman in the car shops 
there for thirty-one years, and when the shops at 
Weatherly were abandoned he was retained in a sim- 
ilar capacity in the shops at Packerton, where he still 
remains, being one of the oldest foremen, in point of 
service, in the employ of the company. 

He was married on July 20, 1871, to Anna, daughter 
of Jacob and Rebecca Cole, of Newton, N. J. Their 
children are: Charles E., Lenora C, J. Thomas, and 
Nell E. Wagner. In 1899 Mr. Wagner removed with 
his family to Lehighton. 



500 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

During his residence in Weatherly he served for 
nine years as a member of the school board, was a 
member of town council, and was thrice elected to the 
office of chief burgess, liberally contributing of his 
time and energy to every cause for the public good. 
Mr. Wagner is an elder in the Presbyterian church, and 
is still an active and enthusiastic worker in the Sunday 
school. He is a supporter of the principles of the Dem- 
ocratic party. 

Warner, Edwin F., a leading Weatherly business 
man, and formerly a member of the board of county 
commissioners, was born in Tannersville, Monroe 
county, Pa., on January 11, 1857. His paternal grand- 
father, George Warner, was a native of Northampton 
county, the year of his birth being 1790. He was a 
cooper by trade, and he also served as a surgeon in the 
war of 1812. 

Peter Warner, the father of the subject of this 
sketch, was born in Pocono township, Monroe county, 
Pa., on Christmas Day, 1835. Early in life he learned 
the carpenter trade, later becoming a cabinet maker, as 
well, and following the dual pursuits for a number of 
years. Subsequently he gained success as a contractor 
and builder, finally opening an undertaking establish- 
ment, which he conducted for many years. He is yet 
numbered among the substantial citizens of Tanners- 
ville, where he served as a justice of the peace for 
nearly two generations. His wife, before her marriage, 
was Lavina Sittler, and was born in Lehigh county 
in 1832. They had four children : Edwin F., Emma S., 
the wife of William H. Werkheiser, of Chester, W. Va., 
Elmer and Sarah, who married Woodward Kresge, of 
Monroe county. 

Edwin F. Warner was educated in the public schools, 
learning the cabinet maker's trade and the undertaking 




fe^^^^.1^ 7^ //2i>2^^2yU^ 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 601 

business from his father. In 1881 he located in Weath- 
erly, founding the furniture and undertaking establish- 
ment of which he is still the head, and which he has 
conducted with uniform success. In this connection it 
may be said that he is a graduate of Clark's School of 
Embalming, together with several other institutions of 
a like nature. 

Mr. Warner has been prominently identified with the 
various interests and phases of the life of Weatherly 
since taking up his residence in the town. He was one 
of the organizers of the Weatherly Foundry and Ma- 
chine Company and of the First National Bank of 
Weatherly, still serving as a director of both institu- 
tions. He is also the president of the Anthracite Build- 
ing and Loan Association, one of the model institutions 
of its kind in Pennsylvania. For ten successive years 
he served as a member of town council, being for a 
time the president of that body. He is now the chief 
of the fire department of the borough. 

In 1908 he was elected to the office of county com- 
missioner as the candidate of the Democratic party, 
receiving the almost unanimous support of the voters 
in his own community and the surrounding districts. 
Packer township honored him by recording every vote 
cast in his favor. It was largely due to his influence as 
a commissioner that the road across the Broad Moun- 
tain, connecting Hudsondale with Mauch Chunk, which 
had been abandoned, was rebuilt. 

Mr. Warner is connected with many fraternal organ- 
izations. He is a member of Hazle Lodge, No. 327, F. 
and A. M. ; Lilly Chapter, No. 177, R. A. M., of Mauch 
Chunk, and Hazleton Commandery, No. 73, K. T. ; he 
also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
Knights of Pythias, Knights of the Golden Eagle, the 
Improved Order of Red Men, and the Patriotic Order 
of Sons of America. 



602 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

In 1882 he was married to Carrie, daughter of 
George Wass, of Tannersville. They are the parents 
of the following children: H. Fred, Peter G. !C., 
Mayme, Carrie, Nettie and George Charles. 

Harvey Fred Warner was born at Weatherly on 
August 17, 1883. After completing the high school 
course in his native town he attended the Hazleton 
Business College, from which he was graduated in 
1900. For several years he was a clerk in the office 
of the master machinist of the Lehigh Valley Railroad 
at Weatherly, after which he served as a teller in the 
national bank of the town. He is now the chief clerk 
of the Weatherly Foundry and Machine Company. He 
is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Patri- 
otic Order of Sons of America. 

Peter G. C. Warner was born at Weatherly on May 
4, 1885. Completing his studies at the high school in 
1902, he went to Eckles School of Embalming, at Phil- 
adelphia, being graduated the same year. Since then 
he has assisted his father in the conduct of his busi- 
ness. Like his brother, he is identified with the Free 
and Accepted Masons and the Patriotic Order of Sons 
of America. 

Mayme, Nettie and Carrie are graduates of the high 
school at Weatherly, and the two first named also have 
diplomas from the East Stroudsburg State Normal 
School. They are now teachers in the public schools. 

George Charles is at present a member of the middle 
class of the Weatherly high school. 

Mr. Warner and his family are members of the Re- 
formed church. 

Warner, Elmer, a prominent individual factor in 
the business, industrial and financial affairs of Weath- 
erly, was born at Tannersville, Monroe county. Pa., 
on April 30, 1861. The family of which he is a mem- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 603 

ber has resided in eastern Pennsylvania since the early 
days of the Republic. His grandfather, George War- 
ner, was a veteran of the second war with England, 
while his maternal lineage connects him with Burk- 
hart Moser, a pioneer settler in the Panther Creek 
Valley, and formerly the owner of much of the valuable 
coal land now held by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 
Company. He is the son of Peter and Lavina (Sittler) 
Warner, both of whom still reside at Tannersville. 

After leaving school he assisted his father, who was 
interested in various enterprises, for a time. Subse- 
quently he opened a general store on his own account, 
conducting the same for a period of about five years. 
Coming to Weatherly in 1891, he purchased in bank- 
ruptcy proceedings the store of David Kintz, soon com- 
manding a liberal patronage. The expansion of the 
business demanding more commodious quarters, Mr. 
Warner built a large addition to his store in 1903, the 
completion and opening of which marked a new era in 
the business life of the town. This establishment is 
now the equal of many department stores in the minor 
cities of the state. Its stock is complete and up-to-date, 
while every effort is made to satisfy the wants of the 
public a fair and reasonable prices. 

Upon the removal of the shops of the Lehigh Valley 
Railroad from Weatherly, in 1899, Mr. Warner was 
one of the leaders of a small group of men who vir- 
tually saved the town from being obliterated. With 
characteristic enterprise and resourcefulness he lent 
himself to the organization and establishment of the 
Weatherly Foundry and Machine Company, which is 
now the principal industry of the borough. He is the 
chief individual stockholder and general manager of 
this company. Mr. Warner was also one of the or- 
ganizers of the First National Bank of Weatherly, of 



504 HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 

which he has been the president since its beginning. 
He was the postmaster of Tannersville from 1885 to 
1889, and was the president of the board of education 
of Weatherly when the Schwab school building was 
erected, having also served as the chief burgess of the 
borough. 

Fraternally he is identified with the Benevolent and 
Protective Order of Elks, and he is a member of the 
Reformed church. 

Mr. Warner has been thrice married. On September 
22, 1887, he wedded Hattie, a daughter of David Learn. 
Her ancestors lived in what is now Monroe county 
during Colonial times, and they figured conspicuously 
in the Indian affairs of that region. The name was 
earlier spelled, ''Learner." Two children were born 
of this marriage, Floyd T., who is now in charge of 
his father 's store, and Hattie L. The wife and mother 
departed this life on April 12, 1800, and on May 2, 
1892, Mr. Warner married Martha A. Kresge. Four 
children, Stanley, Ruth, Grace and Jennie, were the 
fruits of this union. Being again left a widower, Mr. 
Warner, on November 29, 1906, was joined in wedlock 
to Gertrude, daughter of Abraham and Delia Stull, of 
Hazleton. Her father was formerly associated with 
the firm of Dodge, Meigs and Dodge, early lumbermen 
in the vicinity of Lehigh Tannery. Later he was in 
the service of the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Hazleton. 
Mrs. Warner is a descendant of Ira Mandeville, a pi- 
oneer settler of the Wyoming Valley. The children of 
this marriage are : Gertrude S., Elmer E., and George 
S. C. Warner. Pauline M. died in infancy. 

Wayne, Edgar F., formerly one of Hudsondale's 
best known residents, but now located at Bellefontaine, 
Ohio, was born at Conyngham, Luzerne county. Pa., 
on December 20, 1872. He is the son of William and 





^^2>^^^^ es^^^^^r /^ 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. g05 

Mary (Keller) Wayne, one of his maternal ancestors, 
John Faust, having been a pioneer settler of Packer 
township. 

When Edgar was about 13 years of age, the family 
removed to Hudsondale, where he grew to maturity. 
Having attended the district schools and the high 
school at Weatherly, he learned the art of telegraphy, 
and was successively stationed at various points on 
the line of the Tide Water Pipe Company, which in- 
augurated the present system of transporting petro- 
leum from the oil fields to the sea board by means of 
long distance pipe lines. Having mastered the prin- 
ciples and details of this system of transportation he 
was, in 1908, appointed to the superintendency of the 
plant of this company at Bellefontaine, where he has 
since lived. 

He was married on January 6, 1897, to Irene, daugh- 
ter of John Breish, of Mainville, Columbia county, Pa. 
Their children are : Bessie May, born on May 6, 1900, 
and Thomas Russell Wayne, whose birth occurred on 
March 27, 1903. 

Mr. Wayne is a member and past master of Cata- 
wissa Lodge, No. 349, F. and A. M., and is a member 
of Coudersport Chapter, No. 263, R. A. M., and Potter 
Commandery, No. 69, K. T. He is connected with St. 
Matthew's Reformed church of Packer township, 
while his political allegiance has been given to the Re- 
publican party. 

Wayne, W. W., one of Packer township's best known 
citizens, was born February 19, 1849, at Taylorsville, 
Schuylkill county. His father was Thomas Wayne, 
who worked to an advanced age at his trade as a mill- 
wright and enjoyed the reputation of having no su- 
perior in the calling to which he devoted his life. When 
William, the subject of this sketch, was ten years of 



QQQ HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 

age, his family removed to Georgia; but at breaking 
out of the Civil War they returned to the North, living 
for a short period at Auburn, Schuylkill county. They 
next took up their residence at Berneville, Berks coun- 
ty, where Mr. Wayne received most of his schooling. 
He took up the trade which his father followed, and in 
1871 was married to Mary Keller, a daughter of David 
and Catherine Keller, of Packer township. They lived 
successively at Conyham and at Wapwallopen, in Lu- 
zerne county, and at Selinsgrove, Snyder county, after 
which they came to Packer township. 

Mr. Wayne was for fourteen years with the firm of 
Sprout, Waldron & Company, mill builders, of Muncy, 
Pa. While in their employ he traveled over most of 
the states of the Atlantic seaboard, superintending the 
repair and construction of grist mills. He now oper- 
ates the farm that was formerly owned by his father- 
in-law, D. R. Keller. Mr. Wayne enjoys the distinction 
of having served as a federal census enumerator on 
three separate occasions. He is a member of the 
Bloomsburg Masonic lodge and of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wayne are the parents of four chil- 
dren: Josephine, who is the wife of T. F. Petit, of 
Dunellen, N. J.; Edgar, Katie, married to Edward 
Lauderburn, of Weatherly, and Faust Wayne. Mr. 
Wayne has been a supporter of the principles of the 
Republican party since attaining his majority. 

Weiss, John 0., conducting a hotel and store at Har- 
rity, Franklin township, was born at Weissport on 
February 24, 1857, the son of Edward and Henrietta 
(Steckle) Weiss. 

His great grandfather. Col. Jacob Weiss, was a vet- 
eran of the Revolutionary War, the founder of Weiss- 
port, and one of the principal organizers of the Lehigh 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 607 

Coal Mine Company, the forerunner of the Lehigh Coal 
and Navigation Company. He was one of the most in- 
fluential of the early pioneers of the anthracite coal 
trade. 

John 0. Weiss began life as a laborer for the Lehigh 
Coal and Navigation Company, in the boat yard at 
Weissport. Subsequently he was appointed as assis- 
tant collector for that company at Mauch Chunk, which 
position he filled for twenty-five years. Later he was 
the general storekeeper in the canal department of the 
same corporation at Weissport. Resigning from the 
service of the company in the fall of 1909, he purchased 
the hotel and store at Harrity which he has since con- 
ducted. 

He was married on January 13, 1889, to Emma L., 
daughter of Edward Reber and his wife Mary, of 
Franklin township. Most of their married life has 
been spent at East Weissport. Julius E. R. and Merril 
J. Weiss are their two children. 

West, Samuel L., a director of the Middle Coal Field 
Poor District, and holding the position of a general 
foreman for the Reed and Lovatt Manufacturing Com- 
pany, of Weatherly, was born at that place on January 
15, 1871. His father, George West, a veteran of the 
Civil War, and for years a locomotive engineer on the 
Lehigh Valley Railroad, was born in Weatherly in 
1846. His mother bore the name of Jane Brennan be- 
fore her marriage, which occurred on January 25, 1866. 

Samuel West attended the schools of his native town 
until he became twelve years of age, when he entered 
the furniture and undertaking establishment of E. F. 
Warner, where he was employed in various capacities 
until he reached his majority. For a short time he was 
located at Altoona, Pa. Returning to Weatherly he en- 
tered the employ of the company with which he is now 



503 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

cdnnected, and which he has served with increasing 
responsibility from the start. This company operates 
one of the largest silk throwing mills in the world. 

Mr, West has taken an active interest in politics 
since he became a voter, and has always been a Repub- 
lican. He was a member of the county committee of 
that party for a number of years. In 1910 he was 
elected to the office of director of the Middle Coal 
Field Poor District by a large majority. He is a mem- 
ber of the Sons of Veterans and of the Knights of 
Pythias, while he has been the secretary of the 
Weatherly Camp of the Patriotic Order of Sons of 
America for fourteen years. He is connected with the 
board of trade, and attends the Presbyterian church. 

Mr. West was wedded to Emma C. Rose, of Weath- 
erly, on April 23, 1891. Emerson C. West is their only 
child. 

Wilhelm, Captain William H., one of Carbon coun- 
ty's most intrepid soldiers, who sacrificed his life to his 
country during the insurrection in the Philippine Is- 
lands, was born at Mauch Chunk, June 9, 1867, the son 
of James H. and Martha M. (Weaver) Wilhelm. He 
was descended from pioneer German and Huguenot 
settlers in Pennsylvania. Among these were: Rev. 
John Bechtel, one of the fathers of the Reformed 
church in America, who located at Germantown, Phil- 
adelphia, in 1726, and who is a prominent figure in the 
ecclesiastical history and literature of that community ; 
George Weaver, a private soldier of the provincial 
forces in the Indian wars of 1756-57; and Cornelius 
and Jacob Weygant, father and son, the former active 
in the deliberations of the Northampton county Com- 
mittee of Observation and Inspection, and of its Stand- 
ing Committee of Correspondence, 1776-77, and the 
latter a captain of militia of the same county, who was 




Capt. William H. Wilhelm. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 609 

frequently in active service during the Revolutionary 
War. 

His father, J. H. Wilhelm, was for many years the 
paymaster of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, 
and was one of its most popular officials. He is spend- 
ing the evening of his life in retirement at his home in 
Mauch Chunk. 

William Herman Wilhelm acquired his early educa- 
tion in the public schools of his native town, laying the 
foundation for a course of higher study at Ulrich's 
Preparatory School, Bethlehem, Pa. He entered Le- 
high University and was a member of the class of 1883. 
In June, 1884, he was, after a competitive examination, 
appointed by Congressman Storm to a cadetship in the 
United States Military Academy at West Point. Here 
he ranked among the first in discipline, and in several 
of his studies. After the first year, and to the end 
of his course, he was an officer in the battalion of 
cadets, chosen from those who have been most studious 
and soldier-like in the performance of their duties, and 
most exemplary in their general deportment. His 
genial nature and noble personal attributes combined 
to make him a general favorite among his classmates. 
He was graduated in June, 1888, and was commis- 
sioned second lieutenant in the Tenth Infantry, joining 
his company at Fort Crawford, Colorado, in the fall 
of that year. During the ten succeeding years he was 
successively stationed at many of the army posts 
throughout the West. For a time Captain Wilhelm was 
in command of the troops sent to Oklahoma to main- 
tain peace and order when that territory was thrown 
open to settlement. 

In 1890 he was placed in command of a company of 
Indian scouts in the service of the government at Fort 
Reno. A year later he was given charge of the govern- 



610 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

ment schools for the Indians at Fort Lewis, Colorado, 
where he remained for a short period. He was pro- 
moted to the rank of first lieutenant in 1895. 

Upon the breaking out of the war with Spain, being 
eager to go to the front, he was appointed an aide-de- 
camp to Brigadier General Snyder, United States Vol- 
unteers, under whom he served with the army of occu- 
pation in Cuba. Being appointed to a captaincy in 
1899, he was ordered to the Philippines, where a stub- 
born revolt against the authority of the United States 
was in progress. Within a few days after his arrival 
at Manila, he was already under fire, participating in 
the hard fighting about the Zapote river. At the battle 
of San Mateo, where General Lawton lost his life. Cap- 
tain Wilhelm displayed conspicuous bravery, winning 
a recommendation from his superior officers. Major 
Parker and General Young, for the brevet of major. 
For his cool and soldierly conduct in this engagement 
he was also recommended for a medal of honor. 

From July until November, 1900, he was in command 
of a body of troops charged with the perilous duty of 
preserving the peace in the most lawless district of 
Manila, in which position he acquitted himself with 
signal ability. On June 10, 1901, after two years of 
strenuous campaigning in the islands, he was mortally 
wounded at Lipa, Batangas Province, while engaging a 
force of insurgents outnumbering his own five to one. 
His death occurred two days later. 

Governor General Taft, with the Civil Commission, 
and a large number of officers and civilians, attended 
the funeral services held in Manila. His untimely but 
heroic death elicited many warm tributes to his worth 
as a man and a soldier from those with whom he had 
come in contact in the various grades of the service. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. QH 

On July 30th, the remains of Captain Wilhelm were 
laid to rest with military honors at his home in Mauch 
Chunk, all business being suspended in the town, whiler 
virtually the whole population joined in doing honor to 
his memory. 

A battery at Fort Flagler, Washington, now bears 
his name, which is also perpetuated by a suitable me- 
morial in the Hall of Fame at West Point. 

Young, Dr. James H., a Lansford physician and sur- 
geon, was born at Dunmore, Pa., on November 20, 1876. 
He is the son of James and Lottie (Harrington) 
Young, the former born in Scotland, and the latter a 
native of New Jersey. The father was a mine super- 
intendent at Dunmore, and at one time held the office 
of treasurer of Lackawanna county. 

James H. Young received his early education in the 
School of the Lackawanna, a private institution at 
Scranton. Later he attended Lafayette College. 
Choosing the medical profession, he entered the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania in 1897, being graduated with 
the class of 1901. 

After spending a year in his professional capacity 
at the Moses Taylor Hospital at Scranton, he came to 
Lansford, in 1903, as the assistant of Dr. E. H. Kistler. 
During the following year he did post-graduate work 
at the Polyclinic Hospital and at Wills Eye Hospital, 
Philadelphia. 

Returning to Lansford in 1905, he re-entered the 
service of Dr. Kistler, to whose daughter, Mary, he was 
married on October 9, 1907. A year later he succeeded 
his father-in-law as the physician and surgeon of the 
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, which arduous 
and responsible position he is now filling. The com- 
pany's department for giving first aid to the injured is 
under his direction. He is also the surgeon of the 



612 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

Eastern Pennsylvania Railways Company at Lans- 
ford. 

Dr. Young is a specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, 
nose and throat. He is a member of the Carbon County 
Medical Society, the Pennsylvania State Medical Asso- 
ciation, the American Medical Society, and the Medical 
Club of Philadelphia. He is also a member of the 
Masonic order. 

Zern, Hon. Jacob Gilbert, is a native of Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, but nearly the whole of his ma- 
ture life has been spent in Carbon county, having long 
since achieved prominence as a physician, and as a man 
of public affairs. 

He was born February 24, 1845, being a descendant, 
in the fifth generation of Adam Zern, who emigrated 
to Montgomery county from Germany in Colonial 
times. His great-great-grandfather, Martin Sensen- 
derfer, and his great-grandfather, Christian Specht, 
were soldiers in the Revolutionary War. His grand- 
father, Abraham Zern, was a soldier in the war of 
1812. His father, the Reverend Jacob Zern, was for a 
quarter of a century a well-known minister of the 
Evangelical Association in the eastern part of Penn- 
sylvania. Dr. Zern's mother was Sophia Gilbert, also 
a native of Montgomery county. His earlier years 
were spent in farming pursuits, and he attended the 
public schools of his locality until he became eighteen 
years of age. He then became a student at Millersville 
State Normal School, after which he served for a time 
as a teacher in the schools of Lancaster county. At 
the age of nineteen he enlisted as a soldier in Company 
C, One Hundred and Ninety-fifth Regiment, Pennsyl- 
vania Volunteers, serving until the termination of hos- 
tilities. 



HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 613 

Immediately after the close of the war he began the 
study of medicine in the office of Dr. S. B. Detwiler, of 
Montgomery county, subsequently attending lectures 
in the Medical Department of the University of Penn- 
sylvania, graduating with the class of 1868. Soon 
after his graduation Dr. Zern located at Weissport, 
where he was successful in the practice of his profes- 
sion from the start. He lived in Weissport for twenty- 
three years, after which he removed to Lehighton. Dr. 
Zern's popularity is attested by the number of times he 
has been chosen to fill political office. He was elected 
to represent Carbon county in the state legislature in 
1878, and was re-elected in 1880. 

During a part of Cleveland 's first term he was post- 
master of Weissport, Pa. In 1893 he was elected bur- 
gess of Lehighton, and two years later he was the suc- 
cessful nominee for the office of associate judge of 
Carbon county. He was next delegated to represent 
his district (comprising the counties of Carbon, Mon- 
roe and Pike) in the state senate, being elected in 
1902. He is a supporter of the Democratic party. Dr. 
Zern has also taken an active part in business affairs, 
and has been prominently identified with various enter- 
prises in and about Lehighton. He is the oldest direc- 
tor, in point of service, of the First National Bank of 
Lehighton, of which he is also the vice-president. He 
is the secretary of the Association of Lehigh Valley 
Railroad Surgeons, and was the first president of the 
Carbon County Medical Society. He is also a member 
of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, and of the Amer- 
ican Medical Society. Upon the completion of the 
Panther Creek Valley Hospital, located at Coaldale, 
he was appointed as one of its consulting physicians. 

Dr. Zern is a past master of Lehighton Lodge, No. 
621, Free and Accepted Masons, having the honor of 



gJ4 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

being elected its master when the lodge was consti- 
tuted, in 1900. He is also a past master of Carbon 
Lodge, No. 242, F. & A. M., Mauch Chunk, and is a 
past eminent commander of Packer Commandery, No. 
23, of Mauch Chunk. 

Dr. Zern was married to Ellen M. Edinger, a daugh- 
ter of Hon. Abraham Edinger, of Monroe county, in 
1870. Four children were born to them : May, Wilmer, 
Harry and Katharine. The last named, who is the wife 
of Dr. Homer Heberling, of Lehighton, alone survives. 

Ziegenfuss, John A., a representative of one of Penn- 
sylvania's oldest families, and a prominent churchman 
and Democrat, conducts a carriage and wagon building 
establishment at East Weissport, Franklin township. 
The pioneer of his family in America was Andrew Zie- 
genfuss, who was born near Strassburg, in the valley 
of the Ehine, Germany, in the year 1692. He, with his 
wife, Catherine, and children, sailed from Havre, 
France, on board the ship Thistle, for Philadelphia, 
where they landed on October 28, 1738. Leaving Phil- 
adelphia, the family settled in what is now Spring- 
field or Nackomixom township, Montgomery county, 
September 16, 1751. Andrew Ziegenfuss died in the 
year 1778, being aged eighty-six years. 

One of his six children, Andrew, was born in 1747, 
and, in March, 1773, was married to a Miss Richard, 
of Bucks county. The eldest of their seven children 
was George Ziegenfuss, who was born January 31, 
1779, in Bucks county. On February 18, 1798, at the 
age of 19, he was united in marriage at Easton, to Su- 
sannah Nulf, a daughter of Captain Nulf, of Revolu- 
tionary fame. He was a miller by trade, which occu- 
pation was quite common among his descendants. 

In the year 1800, he, with his brothers, Andrew and 
John, crossed the Blue Ridge, and settled in the wil- 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 615 

derness, where the village of Aquashicola, Carbon 
county, now is. He there built the first grist mill in all 
that section of country. He was drafted for service 
in the war of 1812, but having six small children to care 
for, his brother John generously volunteered as his 
substitute. 

George Ziegenfuss died, having attained the age of 
eighty-six, and leaving eleven children, on November 
24, 1865. His wife followed him to the grave on Oc- 
tober 23, 1866, at the advanced age of eighty-nine 
years. One of the sons of this pair, Daniel, was killed 
in the war with Mexico, while their daughter, Polly 
(Fenstermacker), died at Mauch Chunk, January 20, 
1906, at the age of ninety-nine. 

George, the second son of George and Susannah 
Ziegenfuss, was born April 9, 1803, being married to 
Catherine Kerchner in the year 1830. They had seven 
children: Cornelius, Thomas H., Isabella, Susannah, 
Stephen, Mary A., and William E. Ziegenfuss. Only 
two of these survive, Cornelius, living at White Haven, 
while William is a physician at Detroit, Mich. 

Stephen Ziegenfuss, the father of the subject of this 
sketch, was born in Ross township, Monroe county, 
August 27, 1842. On September 29, 1862, he enlisted 
in Company A, Fourth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volun- 
teer Calvary. He served with the Army of the Poto- 
mac, and was with Grant in the campaign against Rich- 
mond. He took part in thirty-one battles and skir- 
mishes, and was honorably discharged on July 1, 1865, 
as a corporal. Returning to civil life, Mr. Ziegenfuss 
located at Gilberts, Monroe county, where he followed 
the trade of a wheelwright and became a justice of the 
peace. 

He chose as his life companion Salina Heiney, of 
Gilberts, Monroe county, with whom he had ten chil- 



616 HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 

dren, five of whom are yet living: Emma J., wife of 
Lewis Smith, of Lehighton; Mary C, wife of Henry 
Trainer, of Weissport ; John A., Thomas H., and Lydia 
M., wife of William Walck, all of Franklin township. 

Removing to Franklin township, Carbon county, in 
1890, Stephen Ziegenfuss continued as a carriage and 
wagon builder, filling various township offices. He 
died August 31, 1910. 

John A. Ziegenfuss was born July 25, 1882, at Gil- 
berts, Monroe county. Coming to Carbon county with 
the family of his father, he attended the public schools 
until he reached the age of seventeen. Under the in- 
struction of his father he had already mastered the 
trade of a wheelwright at this time; but he began life 
as a bookkeeper in the Packerton office of the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad Company. At the end of a year, how- 
ever, he relinquished his duties there, and shortly 
afterwards formed a partnership with his father, con- 
ducting the wagon and carriage works at East Weiss- 
port. In 1907 he acquired his father's interest in the 
business through purchase, and has since been sole 
owner of the enterprise. 

Mr. Ziegenfuss was elected, as a candidate of the 
Democratic party, to the office of county auditor in 
1908. He is also a notary public, and is a justice of 
the peace of Franklin township, to which office he was 
elected in 1911. He was one of the organizers of the 
Ziegenfuss Family Association of the United States, 
and was chosen as its first president, being still so 
serving. The association has a membership of about 
500, most of whom live in Pennsylvania ; there are rep- 
resentatives from many other sections of the Union, 
however, and its meetings are held annually. 

Fraternally Mr. Ziegenfuss is allied with the Sons of 
Veterans, Junior Mechanics, Independent Americans, 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 617 

Koyal Arcanum and the Patriotic Order of Sons of 
America. He has also been a member of Company B, 
Eighth Regiment, National Guard of Pennsylvania, for 
the past six years. He is the superintendent of the 
Sunday school of St. Paul's Lutheran church of Weiss- 
port, and is the president of the Upper Lehigh Valley 
district of the Luther League of Pennsylvania, of 
which he was the treasurer for five years. He is also a 
member of the state executive board of this organiza- 
tion, in the councils of which he has borne an active 
part during recent years. 

Mr. Ziegenfuss is in demand as a speaker at church 
and Sunday school gatherings ; he is of a studious dis- 
position and is the owner of a well-selected library. 
By reading law at night and during his hours of leis- 
ure, he has equipped himself to intelligently discharge 
the judicial functions of the office which he holds. 



APPENDIXES 



APPENDIX I 

Population of Carbon County from 1850 to 1910. 



Districts. 



Banks township, 

Beaver Meadow borough, 

East Mauch Chunk borough, . . 

East Penn township 

East Side borough, 

Franklin township 

Kidder township, 

Lansford borough, 

Lausanne township 

Lehigh township 

Lehighton borough 

Lower Towamensing township, 

Mahoning township 

Mauch Chunk borough, 

Mauch Chunk township 

Packer township, 

Parryyille borough 

Penn Forest township, 

Summit Hill borough, 

Towamensing township 

Weatherly borough , 

Weissport borough 



Totals, 



1850 



1,745 



688 



636 
1,382 



1,197 
1,520 
2.557 
3,727 
291 



415 



1,629 



15, 687 



1860 



2,502 



833 
801 



1,624 
1,249 



1,942 



1,409 
1,961 
2,966 
4,008 
357 



580 



801 



21,033 



1870 



3,982 



1.585 
862 



1,912 
1,417 



1,416 



1,485 
1,552 
1, 
3,841 
5.210 
441 



504 



913 

1,076 

359 



28, 144 



1880 



4.018 



1,853 
933 



1,741 

1,20; 

2,206 

1,421 

36 

1,937 

1,732 

1,903 

3,742 

4,082 

496 

657 

' 653 



931 

1,937 

388 



31,923 



1890 



4,461 



2,772 
1,109 



2.040 

992 

4,004 

136 

565 

2,959 

1,726 

2,248 

4,101 

2,448 

665 

605 

627 

2,816 

933 

2,961 

456 



38, 624 



1900 



4,113 

1,378 

3,458 

1,182 

210 

2,342 

651 

4, 

242 

619 

4,629 

2,507 

2,501 

4,029 

2,896 

684 

723 

486 

2,986 

914 

2,471 

601 



1910 



4.719 

1.530 

3,54S 

944 

220 

2.346 

427 

8,321 

263 

491 

5.316 

4,131 

2,378 

3,952 

4,358 

717 

590 

417 

4,209 

840 

2,501 

638 



44,510 52,846 



APPENDIX II 

Roster of Civil Officers op the County and of Members in the 
State and National Legislatures. 



The year given indicates date of election or appointment. 



1852— Asa Packer. 
1854 — Asa Packer. 
1878— Charles Albright 



Representatives in Congress. 

1880— Robert Klotz. 
1892— William Lilly. 
1898— Laird H. Barber. 

621 



622 HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 

State Senators. 



1857— Tboma8 Craig, Jr. 
1869— A. G. Brodhead. 
1878— Allen Craig. 



1890— William M. Rapsher. 
1902— Jacob G. Zern. 



Members of General Assemhly. 



1843 — John Fatzinger. 
1844 — James R. Struthers. 
1845 — Jesse Samuels. 
1846 — Peter Bowman. 

Alexander Lockhart. 
1847 — Peter Bowman. 
1848— Robert Klotz. 
1850— William Lilly, Jr. 
1852 — James R. Struthers. 
1854 — Thomas Craig, Jr. 
1856— Enos Tolan. 
1857— Charles H. Williams. 
1858— Samuel Balliet. 
1859 — Zachariah H. Long. 
1860— William H. Butler. 
1861— Thomas Craig, Jr. 
1863— Zachariah H. Long. 
1864— W. H. Stroh. 
1865— Allen Craig. 
1868— James Place. 
1869— Wesley B. Leonard. 
1871— C. S. Detrick. 
1872— E. T. McDonough. 
1873— William Kistler. 
1874 — James A. Harvey. 



1874— A. J. Burling. 
1876— J. C. Kramer. 

W. M. Rapsher. 
1878— J. G. Zern. 

Michael Cassady. 
1882— E. H. Snyder. 

John J. Gallagher. 
1884— John Craig. 

J. W. Malloy. 
1886— Daniel Bachman. 

A. W. Raudenbush. 
1888— E. M. Mulheam. 
1890— Hugh Ferry. 
1892— William F. Biery. 
1894— Thomas Williams. 
1896— Jerry N. Weiler. 
1898— Thomas Craig. 
1900— William R. Stroh. 
1902— E. T. Brimmer. 
1904— Robert Bacon. 
1906— James I. Blakslee. 
1908— Wilson S. Campbell. 
1910— Edwin R. Enbody. 
1912— Jacob W. Smith. 



1843— N. B. Eldred. 
1847— Luther Kidder. 
1849— N, B. Eldred. 
1853— George R. Barrett. 
1853— James M. Porter. 



Judges. 



1856— George R. Barrett. 
1870— Samuel S. Dreher. 
1892— Allen Craig. 
1901— Horace Heydt. 



HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 



623 



Associate Judges. 



1843— Asa Packer. 
1843— Jacob Dinkey. 
1848— Daniel Heberling. 
1851— Isaac T. Dodson. 

William H. Cool. 
1856 — Dennis Bowman. 

John Lentz. 
1861— A. G. Brodhead. 

Tilghman Amer. 
1866 — James Huston. 

Herman Hamburger. 
1871 — John Leisenring. 

James Huston. 
1873— Levi Wentz. 

County 
1843— William Kern. 

G. H. Dougherty. 

John D. Bowman. 
1844 — John D. Bowman. 
1845 — Jacob Andreas. 
1846 — Christopher Shires. 
1847 — John Lentz. 
1848 — John Ziegenfuss. 
1849— John Horn. 
1850 — Abraham Shortz. 
1851— Charles Gilbert. 
1852— William Kern. 
1853 — James Broderick, Sr. 
1854— H. B. Berryhill. 
1855 — Abraham Harleman. 
1856— Joshua Bullock. 

Peter Hartz. 
1857— Peter Hartz. 
1858 — Andrew Graver. 
1859— E. W. Harlan. 
1860— Eno9 Koch. 
1861— Daniel Stemler. 
1862— Abel Hewett. 
1863— Peter Hartz. 



1874— Edwin M. Paxton. 
1876 — R. Leonard. 
1878 — Charles Meendsen. 
1881— Harry E. Packer. 
1883 — Charles Meendsen. 
1884 — James Heberling. 

R. Leonard. 
1888— C. H. Seidle. 
1889— Samuel B. Price. 
1893— Daniel Rouse. 
1894— Jacob G. Zem. 
1898— Eugene P. Williams. 
1899— Edwin R. Enbody. 



Commissioners. 

1864 — Charles Meendsen. 
1865— George Smith. 
1866— William Wagner. 
1867 — John D. Bowman. 
1868— B. F. Kleppinger. 
1869— Charles Murray. 

Edward Reber. 
1870 — Levi Harleman. 
1871 — Henry Beineman. 
1872 — Samuel Harleman. 
1873 — Daniel Kennedy. 
1874 — Henry Boyer. 
1875 — Henry Boyer. 

Daniel Rouse. 

James Ash. 
1878 — Josiah Andreas. 

John J. Gallagher. 

James Ash. 
1881 — Edwin Sensinger. 

Samuel Harleman. 

Amos Riegel. 
1884— Anthony Coll. 

John Amer. 

Benjamin Williams. 



624 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 



1887— Jacob S. Hawk. 

Henry Miller. 

Dominick O'Donnell. 
1890— Henry Miller. 

Daniel Cannon. 

J. C Sendel. 
1893— H. H. McBride. 

William B. Anthony. 

Morris Trexler. 
1896— Lewis W. Koons. 

Robert H. Bauman. 

John O'Donnell. 
1899— Charles Rehrig. 

John O'Donnell. 

Jesse L, Gabel. 



1902— D. O. Straup. 

David Ross. 

Thomas M. Ferry. 
1905— D. O. Straup. 

David Ross. 

John K. Lentz. 
1908— John K. Lentz. 

Edwin F. Warner. 

David Ross. 
3911— Wallace Drumheller. 

Thomas B. Craig. 

James Walker. 



Sheriffs. 



1843— Charles Snyder. 
1846— John Painter. 
1849 — Isaac Ripple. 
1852 — John Lentz. 
1855 — Francis Stucker. 
1858 — Amos Riegel. 
1861— Charles Packer. 
1864 — Reuben Ziegenfuss. 
1867— Peter S. Keiser. 
1870 — Jacob W. Raudenbush. 
1873 — Oliver Breneiser. 
1876— J. W. Raudenbush. 



1879— Thomas Koons. 
1882— Charles W. Lentz. 
1885 — James Gallagher. 
1888 — Hiram Levan. 
1891— Joseph S. Webb. 
1894— Milton Setzer. 
1897— Robert Breslin. 
1900— J. H. Gombert. 
1903 — James H. Rothermel. 
1906— William H. Reber. 
1909— August Begel. 



Treasurers. 



1843 — Peter Bowman. 
1845 — Abraham Shortz. 
1847 — Laurence D. Knowles. 
1849 — Isaac Ripple. 
1851 — James I. Blakslee. 
1853— A. G. Brodhead. 
1855— Samuel B. Price. 
1857— Franklin Reed. 
1859— Robert Klotz. 



1861— Conrad Kocher. 
1863— M. W. Raudenbush. 
1865— Patrick Sharkey. 
1867— A. G. Brodhead. 
1869 — James Sweeney. 
1871 — Edgar Twining. 
1873— William E. Bevan. 
1875— T. D. Claus. 
1878 — Max Schweibinz. 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 



625 



1881 — Douglas McLean. 
1884— Samuel Kickert. 
1887 — George Dolan. 
1890— James T. Mulhearn. 
1893— Levi Horn. 
1896— Thomas M. Whildin. 



1899 — Lawrence Tarleton. 
1902 — Douglas Amer. 
1905— Thomas M. Ferry. 
1908 — Milton A. Mummey. 
1911— E. F. Eshleman. 



Registers and Recorders. 



1843— Eobert Klotz. 
1846 — Oliver Musselman. 
1852— A. B. Nimson. 
1858— Edward K. Stroh. 
1861— A. B. Nimson. 
1869— William Graver. 



1872— Alfred Whittingham. 
1875— Bernard Phillips. 
1881 — James H. Handwerk. 
1893— Henry E. Swartz. 
1896— Kobert G. McMichael. 



Registers of Wills. 
1902— Henry W. Bartels. 1908— C. Curtis Doak. 



Recorders of Deeds. 
1902— Eobert G. McMichael. 1905— Warren Van Dyke. 
1905— John McMichael. 1908— Horace F. Keat. 



Prothonotaries and 
1843— William H. Brown. 
1846— Charles Snyder. 
1849 — Dennis Bowman. 
1855— Stephen E. Sites. 
1858— Kobert Q. Butler. 
1861 — Thomas J. Heberling. 



Clerks of the Court. 
1864— J. H. Siewers. 
1873 — Thomas Kemerer. 
1879 — George Esser. 
1891— David G. Watkins. 
1897— E. I. J. Paetzel. 
1900— William J. Zerbey. 



Prothonotaries. 
1903— James E. James. 1909— Henry W. Bartels. 



Clerks of the Court. 
1903— William J. Zerbey. 1909— John J. McGinley. 



District Attorneys. 
184S— James E, Struthers. 1859— Allen Craig. 

1850—0. H. Wheeler. 1862— W. B. Leonard. 

1856— Samuel McLean. 1868— E. C. Dimmick. 



626 



HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 



1874— E. R. Siewers. 
1880— E. M. Mulhearn. 
1886— W. M. Eapsher. 
1889— Joseph Fisher. 
1895— E. O. Nothsteiu. 



1898— Daniel W. Sitler. 
1901— Frank P. Sharkey. 
1904— George E. Gray. 
1911 — Chester Setzer. 



County Surveyors. 



1850 — ^Henry Boyer, Jr. 
1853— S. E. Sites. 
1855— C. H. Nimson. 
1859— Hiram Belford. 
1861— Oliver O. Bowman. 
1863— FJ win Shortz. 
1865— R. F. Hofford. 
1866— James Harvey. 
1867— C. H. Dickerman. 



1843 — Lewis Haney. 
1846— John Horn, Jr. 
1849— William H. Eberle. 
1852— A. G. Brodhead. 
1855— L. D. Knowles. 
1856— Patrick Sharkey. 
1858— S. B. Hutchinson. 
1859— Elwin Bauer. 
1863— R. Leonard. 
1864 — Solomon Driesbach. 
1865 — John B. Longshore. 
1866— Horace De Young. 
1867— Elwin Bauer. 
1868 — James C. Kramer, 
1870— Joseph De Frehn. 



1868— Henry Boyer, 
1872— William G. Freyman. 
1874 — Josiah Xander. 
1875— Charles Carroll. 
1878— H, B. Salkeld, 
1879— Henry Boyer. 
1882— Franz Mackl. 
1907— William B. Tombler. 



Coroners. 



1871— John Painter. 
1872— J. B. Tweedle. 
1873— John Weston. 
1874— J. J. Smyth. 
1875— A. M. Straup. 
1876— P. D. Keiser. 
1879— C. W. Lentz. 
1882— P, H. Latham. 
1885— J, A. Horn. 
1888— W. W. Buck. 
1891— W. L. Kutz. 
1894— W. P. Long. 
1901— J. H. Behler. 
1904— G. Stuart Kirby. 
1907— Edward G. Bray. 



Superintendents of Schools. 



185^^J, H. Siewers. 
1857— Thomas L. Foster. 
1863— R. F. Hofford. 
3881- T. M. Balliet. 



1887— T. A. Snyder. 
1896— A. S. Beisel. 
1902 — James J. Bevan. 



X _p,. 



